The Decimation
by stephelvcwz
Summary: This is a story about what's been missing in five years of Decimation. How the Avengers had to deal with the Snap and adapted life as survivors. (Set after the Battle of Wakanda) Romanogers and Pepperony eventually, super slowburn! Warning: contains spoiler of Avengers Endgame.
1. Chapter 1

All Romanogers in between Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

No need for disclaimer, we all know that these characters came from Marvel. I'm really sorry if there are many grammar mistakes, English is not my first language and it's been so long for me to write something. Usually, I don't like writing and publish it online, but I can not hold myself. Avengers: Endgame's ending indeed ripped my heart out. So here I am, making my own kind of story.

And if you find stories that similar to my story, I make sure I have no intention of copying their story. I know there might be a lot of story with similar background since I'm sure we're fellow writers, both annoyed at the end of the story of the Avengers. I want to change how the Avengers storyline should be, how this story should end. And to fill my own curious sense, about how the Avengers adapted life as survivors. And even if I had the chance to direct or be the writer the MCU, I would put Romanogers ship alive. Their chemistry is unbearable.

And bear with me please, this is my first Romanogers fan-fiction.

Enjoy!

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Chapter 1 -

"Oh, God ..." that's all Steve could say after seeing what happened to Vision. Vision's lifeless body. It was certain that the body will not be recoverable, his body no longer has the color of life. Cannot be blamed, the mind stone that should be on Vision's forehead lost from its place. There was severe damage to several parts of his body. He was just a lifeless droid.

Ignoring Rhodey's confusion about what happened, Steve just sat quietly repeating moment after moments that happened not long ago. Steve, was looking back at Vision's helpless limp body. What really happened? Which part that they had gone wrong? That was the million dollar question. Yet, Vision's body can be said to be the only body that can be found around them.

Steve, with his blank stare, stomped his hand to the ground. It was still fresh in his mind, replayed on a loop, how Bucky turned to dust just like that. How he grasped the dust of his beloved friend, how he felt the dust falling slowly in his hand. "Steve..." Bucky said before turned into the-f-ing-dust. All Steve could feel was anger back then, but now, the memories came one by one, the sadness over-passed it.

"What happened, Cap?" Rhodey asked again. James Rhodes, still in his iron patriot armor, look around, only to found Bruce Banner inside his hulkbuster armor. For a moment, he wondered why Banner hadn't turned into Hulk yet. Nobody answered him though, nobody wants to answer, let alone admit it. Even though most of them knew exactly what had just happened. Thanos won. He did it.

Thor fell to the ground. He held his ax tightly, Strombreaker. "I should have attacked his head ..." muttered Thor. "I should have attacked his head!" Thor's groan was louder than before. "I should have attacked his head!" Once again Thor said in a louder voice. The sky seemed to agree with him. Lightning began to roar and flashes of lightning struck Thor's muscular body as if replenishing power in his body. At the same time, suddenly his body was covered in flashes of lightning, he was very angry. A moment later, Thor got up and flew leaving his comrades in arms, who still fell limp, lamenting their defeat.

Natasha finally collapsed on a nearby tree where she was standing. Her hand held tightly to the injured part of her stomach. Which part was torn or bruised, she can't say it. This defeat was more painful than scratches on her body. She did not know who else had survived. She looked around her, there were only Steve, Rhodey, Banner and Thor who had just flown, somewhere. Maybe he checked the surrounding conditions. Maybe he wants to go check on Asgardians condition, which was no longer on Asgard. Or maybe, Thor needed time alone to mourn all of this.

If it was her, she would have chosen the latter. Her legs were no longer able to support her body, plus the harsh reality, that Thanos managed to do what he wanted, she would pick dead over this. Who else survived, she didn't know how many of them survive. How long will it take for Thanos's massive extermination process to be completed?

"Captain ..." Okoye said hoarsely. That Wakanda's soldier came stumbling around – approached Steve who was still sitting limply beside Vision's body. Natasha used some of the remaining strength to help Okoye came forward. "King ..." she muttered softly. Steve turned to Okoye blankly. "T'Challa ...?" Steve looked around, there was no sign of T'Challa around. Was he survived? Okoye shook her head slowly, as if she knew what Captain America would have asked. No more words to made Steve knew what happened. King Wakanda did not survive.

"He ... helped me ... then he ... disappeared ..." Okoye said broke. Natasha was taken aback, even the King didn't survived, then how could they avenged what had happened? Who else would fight beside her, beside Captain America to fight Thanos? Will they fight Thanos again? Or should they just..let it go? Losing Tony into space was one thing, but losing half her comrades, it was the new stressed.

"We have to finish this battle ..." someone said suddenly. Natasha looked around. Who else survives? She saw "who it was" with a surprised look_. What was that? Rabbit? Squirrel? Was that a wolf?_ Natasha shook her head. No, that was raccoon. A talking raccoon, stood with his two legs. His hand held a weapon that could be said to be almost the size of his own body. "I saw a few shreds there," he said while pointing his gun towards the center of the battlefield. As if reminiscent of what had happened before, the sound of the strange creature Thanos sent, squealed. _Outriders_, Oh not again, Natasha sighed.

Yet, with all the energy left, everyone gathered forward to see what was happening out there. Steve looked at her and make sure she was okay, before walked together with the rest of the team. The battlefield was almost empty. Several dozen Wakandans army were still seen there, at the center of the battlefield, looking confused as hell. Probably thinking where the hell Thanos troops which several minutes ago battled with them. There were a couple dozen bodies lay there. Fewer than it should be, perhaps the others also disintegrated into dust. Far from them, some strange incursions attacked Wakandan's tired-looking troops. Some fought back, some still astonished at the disappearance of their combat groups, and some let the creature that Thanos sent, attacked them. They all lost hope.

"Okoye ..." someone with the typical combat clothing of Wakanda's army, walked towards the remaining Avengers. His condition was no better, his leg torn, you could see blood running down on his shin. His eyes fixed on Okoye, immediately distracted when a creature of Thanos's army ran and tried to attack him. "M'Baku...!" Okoye shouted, warning him. Her tiredness was replaced by anger. Her hands were immediately hold the spear lied on the ground. Her legs spontaneously gained energy, she ready to run to help M'Baku, she promised herself not to lose another important person in her life. The sound of gunfire and the splash of light from the raccoon's weapon broke Natasha's attention. The raccoon ran forward and shooting that creatures which attacked M'Baku. He shot that nasty creature until it torn into pieces.

"Steve ..." Natasha said softly while put her hand on Steve's arm. "Nat ..." Steve sighed. She could tell, Rogers as tired as herself. Steve Rogers went silent, as if gathering a million of his intentions to fight again. He turned, looked at Natasha. _Your condition is very bad_, Steve thought. He held Natasha's hand on his arm for a moment, closed his eyes then nodded in an agreement to attack.

"We'll finish them ..." he said it, looking at the rest of the team for support. Natasha nodded softly and turned to Banner in his Hulkbuster. His face was completely injured. Banner nodded at the same time as Rhodey, which was equally tired. They ran to the center, finishing the battle that was still happened there. Natasha turned briefly and take a look of Vision's lifeless body, we will come back and bury you well, Natasha thought.

Steve ran fast, he put up his shield and ran to the center of the battlefield. He used his shield and knocked over two Outriders. He used whatever weapon he found around him and fired those creatures. His new Wakanda's shield, made of Vibranium, the same ingredient as his previous. There were several additional functions, which were lighter to use, even easier to overthrow your opponent. The shield did able to absorb and reflect kinetic energy. The shield's point incredibly sharp and able to pierce Outriders skin, made them sufficient for stabbing.

In that moment, he really missed his old shield. He had gotten used to using his old shield as one of his fighting techniques. Instead of stabbing, he was used to swing his shield and making it a boomerang, a powerful enough way to bring several enemies at once. Unfortunately, _that _shield was no longer his.

Behind him, Banner did one thing Hulk always excelled at, smash. Banner in his Hulkbuster armor, punched and crushed a Outriders which ran into himself. He snapped its head off its neck. He also blasted some energy and wrecked some of the Outriders afar.

Rhodey also suit up flew up circled the perimeter. He was up, and blasting some of those Outriders on the west side. He flew here and there and blasted Outriders. There was not much Outriders left on the ground. Okoyo and M'Baku fought side by side. An Outriders came and knocked M'Baku, hit his head hard on the rock. But M'Baku fought back. He got up, took a spear and slit its throat.

Natasha and Rocket made a duo team using their weapon to shoot at the rest of the Outsiders. They almost shot simultaneously. For Natasha who mostly fought solo, she almost feel glad she had Rocket to watched her six. Well, that Racoon really good for a teammate.

The battle didn't last long. With the absence of Thanos, his troops could easily handled by the remaining Avengers. A moment later everything was quiet again. Silence. Natasha looked around again to make sure anyone survived. This is bad. Only a few of the Avengers teams are left.

Okoye and M'Baku lead the remaining fighters back to Mount Bashenga, yes, Shuri's private lab. As is known, in the laboratory, Shuri had handled Everett Ross in his critical condition. Okoye told them, they could use some of their medical treatment technology there. She also had to make sure that the King's sister survived the Decimation.

As if luck was out of their options, there was only rubble left. There was no sign of Shuri. They remembered what happened. Wanda left the lab to help others in the battle. There was no one as back up here. Broken glass scattered everywhere. Some blood stains scattered on the floor. This place looked like hell. It was horrible compared to the magnificent and modern laboratory Shuri had before this battle took place.

"She ... she did not survive, did she?" Okoye said stammered. "I couldn't save him, nor couldn't I save her... Who am I called Dora Milaje?" The tears broke. M'Baku hugged her, trying to calm her down. As both a leader of their own pack, M'Baku felt the deep condolences for her and the rest of Wakanda's population.

Natasha turned to see Bruce Banner. The Hulkbuster armor had been removed earlier, shortly after the last final battle was over. So was Rhodey, who now just sitting limply against the laboratory wall. Strange today the Hulk didn't appear to help the Avengers. Maybe the green man was scared or maybe he was actually a coward man whose tantrum was bigger than his guts. Even stranger, where was Thor? Where did the man who claimed to be the god go? After he left, he hadn't returned yet.

Natasha felt her legs limp again. It looks like a wound that was previously dry is now getting worse. She fell in the same minute as Steve caught her in his arms. "Nat... are you okay?" Eventually, she shook her head, though it was hard to admit that she was not okay. She could feel a lot of blood loss. Her eyes were no longer had the strength to open. "We must give the proper funeral for Vision ..." she said softly before finally giving in to her subconscious.

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**AN : So, What do you think? Was it bad? Thanks for reading! ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

Natasha woke up in the sound of something beeping. She tried to open her eyes. Maybe she was more tired than she could admit. She could feel her body betraying her ego. She felt sore in every part of her body. Her stomach hurt, her legs double hurt, and don't talk about her head. If only her head would stop pounding. She closed her eyes, fighting off nausea. Trying, even though the pain, to remember how she could have arrived at this strange, dark place where nothing seemed familiar.

"You awake?" A voice called her. It was Banner. He looked at her with concern. "I'll call Cap, he would be thrilling to see you finally awake." Hulk- no, Banner checked her pulse before walked out the room.

Where was she? Why this place looked like a royal bedroom for a highly royalty? Was she in Royal Palace of Wakanda? Didn't she die? For a moment back there, she was sure she would die. Oh, she should die. From the odd chance of Thanos' snap, why would she survived in the first place? All those stressful thoughts all gone the moment Steve walked inside the room.

"You okay?" Steve asked her as he walked next to her bed. He even helped her to position her pillow to make sure she rest properly. "Upright and still breathing, Rogers. Thanks for asking." Natasha put her smirk over her sarcasm, she didn't like someone treat her like some damsel in distress. "You were out for two days," Steve informed, took a chair and sat on it.

"Two days huh? Wow, you can say this is my lucky day, then." She tried to put a joke but stopped immediately after looking at Steve's stern face. "C'mon Nat, you know better not to joke like that. For a minute, I thought I lost you too."

"Nah, don't worry, Steve," she smiled genuinely, "It's hard to get rid of me." Natasha put her hand on top of Steve's hand. She rubbed her thumb over his, to make sure she meant it. "I saw Bucky turned into dust, Nat. I can't lose someone on my watch again, especially you." Steve looked over their holding hands. "I'll lose it, Nat."

If she didn't know any better, her heart would skip a beat right now. That was confessing, right? Captain America just confessed that she was an important part of his life, right? Or was it some medicine effect that make her hallucination? "Hey tough guy, no need to gloom over me, okay? I'm here, and have no intention to go anywhere." Natasha patted his shoulder a bit. "So, how is Wakanda? We are still in Wakanda right?"

"The medieval curtains give it away," she answered Steve's confused look. "It certainly anywhere near New York's style. So we must still in Wakanda, am I right? Where am I? In the palace?" She ended it with a laugh.

"Yeah, we are still in Wakanda. Queen Ramonda let us stay here for a while. How generous of her actually. She was not over for grieving the loss of her children, yet they humbly to let us stay here in here." Steve looked over Natasha. There were several cuts on her face. Two under her eyebrows, close to her eyes. Big scratch on her cheek that surely would take time to recover. Her lips also chipped. "Okoye personally asked us to stay. Help her with the rest survivors before we head back to New York."

Natasha rubbed her temple. Her headache came back. "For how long, Steve? We need to know who else survived back in New York." Suddenly she thought of Barton's family. Did Clint and his family survived? She had to make a call to him, to make sure everyone in his family okay. Where was Clint when all of this happened? Was he with his family? Did he have any clue of what had happened? Oh God, the more she thought about it, the more she could feel her nausea came back strong. She felt like she was going to throw up.

"Worrying about Barton, aren't we?" Steve asked, soothing her hand. "Yesterday, I tried to give him a call, but no answer, so I don't know if he did." Steve was tempted not to tell Natasha about it, but it's better to know now than later, right?

All she could do was cry. Black Widow didn't usually cry, but who was going to blame her? All of this was hard to accept. Losing Barton's family was like losing her family, her life, her only reason to keep going. And Steve knew better, he held Nat's hand tighter. If only spiritual strength could transfer between touch. He did want to hug her tiny fragile body. But he respect her personal space and he knew she was not a hugger.

"And, one more thing, we just buried Vision's body, once you are in perfect condition, we can visit him." Natasha nodded and wiped her tears. Oh, how embarrassing, let the Captain America saw her crying. He should see her as a great assassins, a deadly one, not the weak one. It would lessen the high expectations of her. "I would like to visit him, to give a proper goodbye," she said in between sniffles. "Yeah, you do that later, but for now, please go back to rest, Nat. You earned it." Steve patted her hand, then kissed her forehead, "Get well soon Nat, the world needs you." She nodded and drifted back to sleep.

For few days, she felt so pampered. Steve, Banner and Rhodes took turns visiting her. Even the Queen Ramonda visit her for a while, to checking her conditions. She once stayed in Shuri's lab for a full day to get a proper medical treatment. A Wakanda health expertise, helped her during the treatment. The equipment almost similar to Dr. Cho had when she tried to fix Barton's injury. It grafted a simulacrum of her tissue cells, and replicated hers to fix damaged skin. Among the Avengers, Steve Rogers, that Brooklyn guy, always made sure that he was there to accompany her. It was weird, Steve was more protective to her than her ex-boyfriend.

Seeing someone from work, usually was not her style. But with Banner she was willing to put that mindset aside. She was wondering herself, how could she did that. She usually wasn't that desperate about love or being intimate with someone.

For the first time, she was willing to picture herself with Banner. Hence the Hulk, Banner was a nice and charming person. Much like herself, even Banner lost his chance to be a parent. And with Banner she was willing to leave this duality life, to leave Avengers, and get away from everything. She was ready to resign, as long Banner with her. But, Banner did have different agenda. After the downfall of Ultron, Banner as Hulk chose to redempt himself and moved nowhere. She even went MIA for 3 months searched for him, but always found dead ends. It was like they, he, didn't want to be found.

Clearly, trying to romance Banner wasn't one of her good judgements. Being with Banner, she felt like she didn't need to be someone else, that's why she felt okay to open up with him. Banner was the first person she opened up about her real life, about Red Room, after Barton. When Barton went on brother-full-mode-on, Banner did go as a good listener, as if Banner knew how she felt. She felt so much alike Banner. However, the similarity was very much, that she could see herself in him. They were both broken. Being together with Banner, was like fixing broken things with another broken things. To finish a puzzle, we didn't need the same puzzle pieces, we needed a different yet matched one.

And to look at Steve, it was such a contrast between Steve and her own ex-boyfriend. How different they were. Steve was way beyond him. He even went with her to see Vision's grave. They buried his body in Wakanda, along with Wakanda's armies.

There was a knock on her door, which startled her daydreaming. "Nat, are you there?" Oh, speaks of the devil. She smiled over her own thoughts. "Come in.." She said, put her wet towel near the bed. Steve's head peeked inside. "Did I interrupt you?"

"No.. I just got out from the bathroom." Steve walked in her room, and closed the door behind him. "Banner and I think it's time to go back to New York?" Natasha could feel the doubt in his word. It was more a question than a statement. Did he just asked for her opinion?

"Oh Rogers, you know I'm dying to go back home."

Steve grinned at her and nodded. "Well suit up, we got a Royal Talon waiting."

Natasha tilted her head and raised her eyebrows. "Royal Talon?"

"More like a quinjet, but only for Wakanda's royal." Natasha smirked and walked to the closet and take her battle suit, ready to suit up. "So, Any news about Thor?" Steve walked and sat on the bed. She started to like how Steve was so comfortable around her. He always put up a barrier between them. He said it himself, after SHIELD had compromised, he couldn't quite trust anybody. Yet, he was willing to put his trust in her. And she did the same.

"Thor checked in on us last night. Talked about found a nice old village willing to accept the rest of Asgardians." Steve had to focused on the floor while Natasha, ten feet apart, starting to take off her top. Steve cleared his throat, "Do you really need to change in front of me?"

"We are both adults, Rogers. You don't like the view, then don't look." Nat laughed, yet she walked to the bathroom. She loved to tease Steve. He was a true gentleman. Sometimes, teasing and cracking him was like a challenge to her. She knew what does her body did to men, they lusted over her, but not Steve. Even when they were both alone, he never looked at her below her face, always up to her eyes. Yet his intimate stares, sometime melt herself.

"I'm ready. And here I thought you were leaving already," she chuckled after took fifteen minutes in the bathroom. She did look more refreshing, more better. Steve smiled. "Is it wrong to wait a lady getting ready?"

"Oh Steve, you and your old gentleman side." Natasha laughed and led them both out the room.

They bid goodbye to the Queen of Wakanda and M'Baku and thanking them for their good hospitality. Okoye and some Wakanda's man piloted them back to New York. And that was how the survivors of the Battle of Wakanda did back to Avengers facility.

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**Sorry for a short story, promise you it's gonna be better next chapter! Thanks for reading! Any thoughts?  
**


	3. Chapter 3

_HAPPY 4TH JULY EVERYONE! _

_AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BELOVED STEVEN GRANT ROGERS AKA CAPTAIN AMERICA!_

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The streets that once thronged with life stood empty. Dust swirls in this late afternoon air like standing in some dusty library with old books being pulled from high shelves. Cars left behind with some door still opened. There were cracked sidewalks, empty gun shells, and broken store fronts with cars ransacked into. Today was day fourth after decimation, and there was no longer New York.

Royal Talon Flyer did landed them at Avengers Facility. Once the flyers' door opened, someone ran at them with a worried face. Steve as a leader, always walked first, way ahead of them. The moment he saw that someone, his heart felt.

"Miss Potts.." he said slowly. Pepper Potts stopped her tracks and inspecting any those survivors got out from the Royal Talon. "Tony?" she asked disbelieve that Tony was not being there with them.

"We have no sign of him yet, Pep." Natasha said as she walked, behind Steve. Natasha hugged her tightly. "I've been trying to locate him, but I don't have any clue." Pepper said, sobbed as Natasha tried to smooth her back.

"Oh God! I don't know what else to do!" Pepper almost screamed if it was not the tears that hold her back. "I tried to locate Fury but it was the same dead end."

"Let's get inside first, Pep. You will calm down, the rest of the team will help find Tony." Natasha affirmatively said, more to herself than to Pepper. She looked at Steve for some backs up.

And for the first time, they introduced themselves to each other. Rocket introduced himself as a genetically and cybernetically enhanced so that he was given sentient levels of intelligence. However, years of abuse and repetitive genetic rewrite caused him becoming a freelance criminal. Once upon a time, he and his partner Groot traveled galaxy, picking up bounties until met Star-Lord and joined him as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Thus, he met Gamora, the daughter of Thanos.

Rocket told them who Thanos was. How Gamora always warned them about his evilness, his wicked one goal. To bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of the universe. Rocket told them, perhaps this was it. This was Thanos' done. This was the effect of Thanos's snap. The destructive toll of the Snap became apparent as half of all the life in universe disintegrated into ashes. Yet, he didn't know what could undo this mass genocide.

After their comeback meeting and several hours of Natasha trying to calm Pepper down, Avenger's member starting to fit themselves into their usual routine. Okoye said that she needed to go back to Wakanda and help to rebuild Wakanda into a proper city. Rhodey asked permission to go back to his old apartment and trying to contact as many as military connection he had.

There were now only Bruce, Natasha and Steve in the compound, and more shocking the Racoon was also still here with them. Natasha ushered them back to their old quarters. Before all of this happened, just after Ultron, Tony invited them all to stay at the New Avengers Facility. All active Avengers did have their own private room in the facility. Natasha ushered Rocket as their newbie to his quarters, one belonged to Vision's once.

"We know Tony is still missing, but we need to find Fury too." Natasha said. In this chaos, usually Fury always had a solution. They all agreed, without Fury they were running blind here. The four of them split their job. Banner and Rocket worked together as they tried to hunt Thanos down. They tried to locate Thanos, searched for his whereabouts. Steve and Natasha worked together to gather information of people who went missing or might have disintegrated into dust during the snap. They also in duty to search for almost every Avengers' acquaintance whereabouts.

Five hours straight of looking at the screen monitor, made Steve's eyes almost watery. He cracked his neck, stretched his arms and got up from his seat. Steve looked at Natasha, worked as hell, though she was just back in shape no longer than a few days ago. "Nat, I think you need to take a rest."

Natasha looked at him skeptically. "No, there was no time for rest, Cap. I also need to find Barton remember?" She went more serious as she typed on the keyboard like a maniac. She went screen by screen to look for a match of Barton or Fury, or whoever result found first. Natasha was really good at multitasking, Steve smirked over his own thoughts.

Steve walked out from the facility's kitchen holding two mugs of coffee, he put one from his right's hand, and offered it to Natasha. He was not one of coffee junkies, but in this kind of situation, caffeine helped. "Here, help you to stay awake, take a break."

Natasha looked over her shoulder, accepted the mug from his hand. "Thank you," she said and take a sip. Steve really knew her taste, just plain black coffee. She knew that he knew she needed this. She had been trying to locate Fury and trying to contact Barton's. Suck for Barton for not having any surveillance near his farmhouse, he declined S.H.I.E.L.D's offer to install any surveillance camera near his house. He didn't want his family felt the burden of having someone watched their activities all 24/7. Even she tried to persuade him in case of security. But Barton declined her, saying that he could keep his family safe without help from S.H.I.E.L.D. She was glad he did that after knowing that S.H.I.E.L.D had been compromised by HYDRA. But now, without the surveillance camera, she would not know if he survived.

She could easily drive to Iowa and visit him now, but she knew her boundaries. Avengers indeed in shorthand, right now, and stay here at the Facility was her only option. The more people stay, the faster they could get result, right?

"I think I found that pirate guy." Racoon broke the silent. "Pirate guy?" Steve asked him, confused. He put his mug down on the table, and walked until he reached Rocket's desk.

Rocket shrugged and sneered. "You know, that guy with blindfolds eye?" Banner walked towards him, and checked his screen monitor. It showed a black SUV from a camera surveillance down the city. "It says he was driving that car four days ago. Perhaps the Snap happened." Rocket shrugged again. "Your guy seems to be dead."

Natasha looked at the screen in disbelief. Would Fury really died? Or it was some trick he put, like back in Winter Soldier's case? Would Fury really left her alone? After all those years of mentoring, working together, Fury was indeed be the one close to a father figure for her. Aside of the spy, Fury was soldier in soul. He would never die in vain.

"Look for a clue, please. Fury must left some clue behind, some, I don't know, a help? A hope?"

Rocket rolled his eyes and rewound the video. The screen showed Fury and Agent Hill were on Atlanta when it happened. They witnessed how the decimation claimed the lives of the civilians around them, put the city into chaos. As Hill disintegrated into dust before Fury's eyes, the former S.H.I.E.L.D Director retrieved something. "There!" Steve said almost yelled in triumph. Rocket jumped slightly but made sure no one saw it and back to his cool image. "Nice good eyes, Captain."

On a video paused, the monitor showed how it discovered a pager displaying a bizarre symbol which they recognized as had been activated by Nick Fury who probably was one of the victims of the Snap.

"What is that?" Banner asked as he inspecting the monitor. It was some kind of transmitter pager.

"I'm on it, Captain." someone said over the comm. "Rhodey." Steve said. "Cap." He greeted back. "Welcome back, Rhodes." Natasha put her ear-comm and greeted Rhodes. "Any status?"

"I did talk to people in the UN. Looks like it did happen around the world. It was all chaos. People start reporting their missing family." Rhodey said from the other end of the comm. Steve and Natasha looked at each other. That was bad, half of the universe really gone.

For two hours long, James Rhodes finally back into the New Avengers Facility with an old pager in hand. He put on the desk in front of everyone. "Don't ask me, I only picked it up from the quietest street I've ever been."

"What is it?" Steve asked everyone in the room. "That I could say is a pager, Cap. It almost as old as yourself." Natasha said and get Rocket's hard laugh as a reply. Steve rolled his eyes. Of course he knew what a pager is, he did tried to learn all technology history.

"I think what Cap trying to say is, where this end signal go?" Banner said, holding the pager and observing it. "I think it is the same usual pager, only modified or enhanced.

"How long the signal need to take?" Natasha asked Banner who looked as confused as herself. "I don't know, Nat. Pager usually don't take this long right?" Natasha sighed. "Who would Fury called?" Natasha asked almost to herself. She was still in denial, she couldn't believe that Fury and Agent Hill were also turned into dust.

"What happened if it's off?" They all looked at Rhodey, as his question did take their subconsciousness fit into one thought. How long until its battery run out?

Rocket looked at the pager which now in Rhodey's hand and talked almost in unison with Banner. "We need to bypass the battery," Banner nodded in agreement. "Yes, to prevent it from running dry."

"Boom!" Rhodey chuckled. "You guys just finished each other sentences." He clapped his armor hand a little, only received glared as a reply.

Banner and Raccoon as their only super intelligences around, managed to build a BMS technology to help them protecting its battery and monitoring its state. With that kind of system, they really hope it could prevent the battery for running dry. They need as much time until they figured it out.

That night, Banner walked through the corridor, when he saw Natasha at the facility's lounge. "Care for an accompany?" Bruce asked shyly as he walked towards her. Natasha poured some alcohol in her glass. "We need to stop meeting like this, Doctor." Natasha smiled genuinely. She remembered the first time she did flirt up with Banner. Almost close to this moment, they were at the party's bar. A party Tony had arranged before Ultron happened.

Bruce scratched his not itchy head. "We haven't had the chance to talk, right?" Natasha smiled and put her glass on her lips. "How are you?" Bruce talked. Natasha liked this awkward side of Banner. She always did, it made her feel much superior and she did like being in controlled.

"Fine I guess?" She shrugged. "Well, for starters, It was nice seeing you again, Nat." Banner smiled as Natasha handed him a drink. "I almost did not believe when I was told Avengers almost disbanded."

Natasha chuckled. "Oh, we did disband." Banner scrunched. "I was told that you had to be on the run."

"Yeah, for a while I was on Team Stark, then I switched side.." she talked and popped cherry in mouth. "He told me to the secretary after I bailed on him.." Natasha shrugged, "No biggie actually, I like my new team.." Banner nodded and looked at her. Her hair was no longer red, probably she dyed it blonde, made it easy to blend in. It did look nice on her.

"I haven't had the chance to say sorry, Natasha." Banner finally said after a long awkward pause. "Sorry about?"

"Us.. I mean, I'm sorry for how I left you.. It was so absurd and I admit it was a coward. I wasn't ready to commit another relations-" Natasha cut his word, "Stop it Bruce, you and I know better, even if we did, we won't last long."

Banner looked at her confused. Was she really okay, he did left her after had promised to runaway with her. "It was okay. We were both may not ready for it. You were long gone, and I moved on." Natasha assured him.

"So, we are okay?" Banner asked. "Yes, we are, Bruce. You don't need to feel bad about it." Bruce smiled sheepishly, he scratched his head a bit. "I wish we had met under different circumstances." Natasha nodded. "Took the words right out of my mouth."

"You seeing anyone?" Natasha chuckled, Banner had to asked. "No, I'm not Bruce" Natasha laughed and Banner looked at her. "Not even Cap?" Oh this is hilarious, Natasha thought. Cap and her? "No, Bruce, no." Natasha's face became serious.

"No need to be defensive." Bruce chuckled. "Well, have a good rest, Nat. We'll search for Clint again, tomorrow." Today's result about Clint Barton almost zero. The Barton's farm house indeed shown no life sign.

"Good night Bruce." she nodded, kissed his cheek goodnight and walked to her room, leaving Bruce alone. For years in the run from the government, she thought she had moved on, but saw Banner again did bring a flashback to her mind. She shook her head and scolded herself for even considering what Banner implied. Her and Steve? Hah, what one of million chance that might actually happened?

And sometimes, watching Steve took care of herself, she was wondering if Steve look after her like a sister or there might be a glimpse of spark between them. No doubt, they got each other's back like she did Barton's. But, with Barton it was different. She owed Barton that. If it wasn't for Barton, she would never make it today. She was ready to surrender herself but Barton made sure she was more valuable alive, thus getting into S.H.I.E.L.D.

With Steve? Ah perhaps Steve was all gentleman.

A week had passed since Thanos erased half of the universe. The US Government had broadcasted about a state of emergency. The government managed in making several shelter locations for citizen who still survived. The government indeed moving quickly, because in a short time, able to build small posts for survivors to report their relatives and acquaintances, who disappeared or had the potential to become victims. Everything was already bad news, until they heard that Ross was also a victim.

Even within a week, there was a very noticeable difference for New York City. This city, which had never slept before, now looked tired and aging. The government, with all their help left, was able to clear the streets from riots. They were able to get rid of abandoned cars left by its owners. If usually the streets of New York look crowded with pedestrians, there are now very few road users.

Some of the residents are still afraid to leave the house, choosing to stay at home. They only go out when they need supply or visit a disaster relief center, checking if they hear about their relatives.

Shops on the side of the road that are usually crowded with visitors, look quiet even almost empty. Some shops look closed, maybe the owner is a victim. Several other shops, even though they were closed, seemed to be damaged by looters.

Steve woke up first. It was still early in the morning. A bad dream woke himself, a dream about some alternate universe where only him survived the snap. He gasped for breath, wiped sweat around his forehead. He walked out of his bedroom and went straight to the kitchen. He opened the fridge,took a bottle of water and drink it.

Steve before the snap, would go for a morning jog around this time. But Steve post the snap, would not doing that. Jogged around with almost empty streets only bring him a pain memory. As if reminder for him, that he could not save everyone.

He walked past the facility's gym when he noticed someone using the gym. With his enhanced hearing, he could hear someone was boxing the punch bag. So, instead of going back to sleep, his leg brought him to the gym. And there, he looked at a feline body, definitely blond hair in a messy ponytail, punching the punch bag. He watched how that someone punch, kick and jabbing the punch bag. If the punch bag was human, it would already be dead by now with several bruises.

"Hardly sleep?" Steve asked, making that someone stopped her punch. "Setting a wrong alarm, Steve?" Natasha chuckled before jabbed the punch bag. She kicked it, then double kicked it with her left leg.

Steve smirked and walked closer to her. "I had another bad dream." Steve sighed, he put his bottle near the bench and took a new punching bag from the floor. He hang it, and tried to punch it with his fist. "Peggy?" Natasha carefully asked. Peggy was a do-not-talk topic. Steve shook his head.

Steve punch his bag and looked at Natasha. "I dreamed that I was the only one survived this Snap. No Banner, no Rhodey, no Bucky, no Sam, no one," he stared into her eyes. "Not even you."

Natasha stopped her punch. "Oh, Steve." Natasha steadied her punch bag and smiled at him. "It was just a dream, Steve. Be glad I'm here for you." Steve nodded. Natasha was really the only one who stayed for him.

After the loss of S.H.I.E.L.D, Natasha indeed stay with him, helped him to clear out his name, together they fought HYDRA. That was the first time Steve noticed that he would really trust Natasha fully. And the same time Natasha promised that she would go wherever the Captain would go, if he asked her to.

Even after the loss of Peggy, Natasha flew to London, to make sure he was not alone. She came to Peggy's funeral, not because she knew her, not because Peggy basically a founder member of organization where she once worked for, but she came for him. She came to see him, to comfort him.

In Sokovia, he also noticed how she would willing to die with him in order to save Sokovians. He was sure, around that time, it was the first time he felt uneasy about Brucetasha relationship. Deep down, he was afraid that relationship could tear the team apart.

Then that civil war happened. For a moment he had disappointed about how Natasha was not on his side of the accords. He thought he could trust her, but she went to Tony's side. But later after that, Natasha helped him and Bucky escaped and he knew that she would always had his back. She even there, when he decided to go to Wakanda, searched for help for Bucky.

She indeed in the run from the government with him. And he was glad she did. With her background as a spy, she taught him some spy-craft 101. How to blend it with people while on the run. She taught them to go undercover. She even taught him few fighting techniques.

And now, in this kind of endgame, she was still there with him. Steve smiled over his own thoughts. "Penny for your thoughts, Rogers." Natasha snapped his mind back to reality.

"How about a mindblown sparring?"

"Only if I beat you, old man"

"Then I won't easy on you, Romanoff."

Steve and Natasha moved to the ring. Steve with his only white singlets and grey slacks, showing his two bulky arms, made Natasha almost skipped her heart. She immediately shook away her thoughts and get her position ready. Natasha re-tied her hair in a ponytail and put her best smiled at him. Steve chuckled. He noticed how cute Natasha in her training suit. "Ready?"

Before Steve could nodded his head, he felt Natasha's right leg hooked his own leg and tackled him. He fell to the floor immediately. "You didn't see that coming, eh?" Natasha laughed. He fell to the ground.

"Hey! That was not fair, Romanoff." Steve got up and shook his head in disbelief. Natasha shrugged, "Never underestimate your enemy, Rogers."

Steve wanted to argue that he was not even ready, but he holds in. He only chuckled and nodded his head, "Fine, two out of three. The lose one had to do laundry for a week."

"Deals." Natasha nodded and get back in her ready position.

They circled the ring, intimidated each other with glares. Steve attacked first. He threw a punch that could be easily dodged by Natasha. She smirked, she threw her body weight behind the fist that edged closer to Steve's jaw, before he blocked it with his hand.

Before Steve could even register, however, another fist punched, this one to his ribs, sent fresh ripples of pain through his torso. He didn't fall—he made absolutely sure he did not fall—but it was a lot closer than he would have liked.

They stumbled apart for a brief second to catch their breaths before diving back at each other, eyes narrowed in determination. He dodged her fist and came up with his own punch; for a brief instant, her eyes widened before she managed to tilt her head back and slam it into him. Stars burst in my vision but I shook it off, blinding throwing a sloppy kick, but Natasha blocked it with her leg.

Steve shoved her off. Seeing she scooted back so far against the weight of it, gave him a second thought. He might push her too hard. He covered the distance between them. She three more punches that did land.

After an hour long of sparring, they collapsed on the floor. "Mind Blown enough?" asked Natasha half laugh. Steve laughed, this was his first laugh after the snap. "So, who's the winner?"

"You know that I am, right?" Steve looked aside at her, he saw Natasha was panting so hard, tried to catch her breath, to calm down the adrenaline rush. If he could be honest, Natasha look so beautiful now. With her glistening hair, which lay loose on the floor; she let it loose in the middle of the sparring; she looks so beautiful.

Steve got up immediately before his mind could think inappropriate thoughts about her. He walked to the bench, picked up his bottle and drink it up. "So, the soldier has to surrender a winning to a spy?" Steve teased her.. "Well, I'll considering your winning if you give me that damn bottle, Rogers." She teased back, pointing the bottle Steve held. Being a gentleman, Steve walked back to her, bringing her _his_ bottle of water and a mini towel from the bench. He sat next to her; which still laying on the floor. He handed her the bottle, and she drank it right away. Drinking cold water in the heat after sparring feels like the greatest luxury on earth.

"Thanks." Steve nodded and couldn't help himself watching Natasha gulping down the water. Few drips drizzled from the sides of her thin weathered lips. Natasha snatched the towel from Steve's grip and used it to wipe her sweat down. Steve really didn't mean to use the towel itself. He really intended to give it for Natasha. He watched how she wiped each droplet off her skin.

"So?" Steve asked her in a hoarse voice. He had to speak before another thoughts come up, or he becomes obsessed with drinking-Natasha or wipe-sweat-Natasha. Natasha; who felt refreshed now look at him; she smiled genuinely.

She acted as if she was considering his offer, then looked at the now wet towel on her hands. "Enjoy doing laundry, Rogers." she said as she got up and threw her towel on his lap. She walked away from the gym with a swag, holding _his_ bottle, leaving Steve to think what the hell that just happened.

* * *

**Chapter 3 is done. Thanks for reading! ****And I know it passed the 4th July already, but when I wrote this story, it was still 4th July. **

**So, Any thoughts?**


	4. Chapter 4

Today was day twelfth. Thor checked in again last night. Talking about how the Asgardian finally settled in Tønsberg, Norway. Located around 102 km south-southwest of Oslo, it was generally regarded as the oldest town in Norway, founded by Vikings in the 9th Century and the original capital of Iceland. Thor revealed that the Asgardians fought against the Frost Giants in a military campaign at Tønsberg in around 1,000 AD.

Thor went on history lesson about how Odin had secreted the Tesseract with a Norse cult at Tønsberg, who had faithfully guarded it until the Second World War, when the Red Skrull stole both the Tesseract and a copy of the Book of Yggdrasil. He and his fellow teammates he newly found, started to establish a life there. Thor talked about how he felt like an Earth master when talked to his fellow Asgardians. He taught the the basic of being "human" on Earth. Doing their home duty, or even taught the about human fashion style, which was way different that Asgardians way of clothing.

That morning, Natasha walked out of her room and getting ready for "work". As the pager continued to transmit with James Rhodes monitoring, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce Banner monitored the immense reports of casualties, making the full scale of the catastrophe horrifically clear.

Steve Rogers stretched up his hand and noticed Natasha entering this so called his office; his workroom. "I think I found Barton, Nat." Natasha looked at him, he still wore a yesterday clothes. A navy S.H.I.E.L.D t-shirt and grey training slacks. "Wow, morning to you too Steve," she smiled and sat next to him, "Did you ever sleep? Captain America would less attractive with black panda eyes."

Steve rolled his eyes. "I ran a facial recognition, and found a glimpse of figure, 40 percent similar to Clint Barton." Natasha looked at the surveillance video on the monitor. She saw a guy with a black leather jacket used an arrow to shoot some thugs. "Is it really him?" Steve shrugged, he couldn't be sure about it. "This is all I can get, Nat. If this is really him, he surely good at being stay under the radar." That guy wore a cap, probably to shield the camera from taking his picture.

She had known Barton for a long time, this could be him. But what happened to him? Where were his family? "I think Barton's family did not survive. Only him.." Steve dared to say this, while looking at Natasha. She nodded trying so hard to accept that now the people she closest to, was just trying as hard as her to cope with this new kind of life.

Barton family was her second family. No, they just her only family she own, beside Avengers team. For the first time Barton opened up about Laura, she supported his decisions. Even she was there, when Barton did mary Laura. She and Fury did. Laura was like a sister she always wanted to have. Laura was not Barton at all, when Barton all about sass or cracked up jokes, Laura was more shy, but full of determination. She really gave her blessed to them.

She helped Clint to persuade Fury to keep his family out of the records. Clint always like a privacy, and there was her play part as his moustache. She just went by, where there was a rumor about them amongst coworkers. When Clint being asked about a family or a life partner, Natasha would stepped up. Being the closest friend to each other, no doubt they would have thought they had been compromised. She didn't care about people thought about her, as long she could help Barton to keep away his family from this kind of dangerous life.

She was even there, accompanying Barton when their first child was born, Cooper. Then she was there when Lila was born. Sometime around her day off time, she would visit their house. Took play as a babysitter for both Cooper and Lila. She was just as glad knowing Laura wasn't like those other girls whose jealous much about their husband's best friend. Laura was a nice woman, who also accepted her as who she was. Lila knew that they were just best friends; Natasha and Clint., and all those kind of act was just a way of Natasha paying back Clint's help before. Natasha owed him that much.

When she was rarely opened up and listened to someone advice, she really took a good listen to Laura when she romance-advised her about Banner. Laura was like their first shipper. Hence that was why she also thought it was okay to be with Banner. All those jealousy to have a family like Barton did with Laura, and good advice from Laura, really made her thought it was okay to stepped down from her duality life.

To think that Barton was left alone, without Laura, without their trio lil babies; yep, she would still think they are still babies no matter how old they are; broke her heart. All she could think now was how Barton is. Was he okay? Probably no, if the person in her monitor was really Barton, then it meant Barton did exactly the opposite of okay.

"I think he needed time alone, Nat. He just lost his family." Steve said, patted her shoulder. Steve rubbed her shoulder with his thumb, made a circle, that gesture Natasha knew better as a Steve's way to comfort her. She would really just laid her head on his shoulder or maybe cry in his comforting hug, but she wiped those thoughts away. She had to be strong for now.

Natasha sighed, "Isn't it better we are doing this together with him?" Steve played the video again. "We could visit him, some time later. Only if you say so, Nat." Natasha smiled, she liked how Steve Rogers always asked for her opinion. He always asked permission, and always support whichever decision she took. He even asked her opinion about which hair colour he should get when on the run. Deep down she knew she liked a brunette Steve. Thus, she helped him dyed his hair. "And Natasha says go to sleep, Rogers. You don't have to take all the credit"

Steve smiled bitterly. "I couldn't sleep. All I could think was about how Bucky turned into dust. Either that or that same nightmare about me being the only one survived the snap." Natasha went to get closer to him. She almost hugged him but stopped, instead, she rubbed her hand over his arm and soothing him. "I know, I was also there. He was the first one, from any of us that turned, right?" Steve could only nodded. Natasha put a calm song and hold his hand. Her thumb started to caress his hand. "We will find a way to bring them back, Steve." Steve looked at her eyes, somehow he knew he would trust her words truly.

"Thanks, Nat. For comforting me, for always being here for me." Steve smiled. Oh this was the smile which could melt the entire ice of Antarctica, this was the smile which make girls swoon. Natasha looked into his eyes, his deep, blue eyes. Then her eyes moved down to how perfectly his nose, his jaws and his lips. His red, thin lips. Then to his newly style beard.

While on the run, Natasha liked to tease him about his beard. Sometime, Sam and Wanda would help her. She stopped teasing him after one drunk night; she drunk-him not, and as she remembered he told her that he liked his new hairstyle which came in one pack with the beard. She, later, even named it. Nomad-Steve. Nomad, since they were all indeed nomaden, moved from one city to another city, one country to another. And Steve, because she liked Steve personality better than Captain America. To her, it was always Steve. In her eyes, she could see his humanity, the person Steve really are.

His eyes are so different in moments like these, more soft than she knew eyes could be. The professional man was gone and instead it was the eyes of someone who will love and be loved back deeply. If it were anyone else she would drop her gaze, but with him, she was drawn in closer. If only Steve wasn't still in love with someone else, she would continue to make her way to him.

When he told her, he would prefer her as a friend, she knew exactly where to step, she would set her boundaries. At first, all she could think was how she was going soft, that she couldn't seduced someone, she lost her touch. But after knowing how Steve still dug for someone from the past, she really appreciated how Steve was unfazed by her flirty charm. How Steve would still love a woman for this long time. That was also another kind of reason, why she thought going on with Banner was a right thing to do. She wanted to feel how to be loved to be accepted by someone else, aside her family.

And when she put herself in his shoes, she noticed why Steve still did that; still loving her. Maybe for the rest of the world, 70 years or more had passed. But for Steve, his time froze thus his feelings also stand still. When the rest of the world changed, either going better or worse, due to the frozen time, his feelings never changed. For him, it was just like the blink of an eye.

"Wow guys, you are worse than Starlord and Gamora. I'm gonna puke." Rocket said suddenly, breaking the tension between them. Rocket walked with his hand holding a mug and his other hand holding a toothbrush. Even funnier, Rocket Racoon walked wore nothing, but a blue boxer shorts, and a towel hanging around his tiny neck. "I won't tell others, if you lend me your friend's gun, Captain." He sneered and walked away. Rocket murmured how he would get that shield later, after hearing Cap yelled a No to his demand.

* * *

Day by day passed with the same routine. Whoever woke up first between Steve and Natasha would instantly go and check the monitor about the missing people. The number was getting increased each day. Bruce Banner and Rhodey took turns monitoring the transmitting pager. Sometimes, they discussed Thanos whereabouts possibilities. Rocket Raccoon in duty to do a space scan and ran satellites looking for a glimpse of hope. Their priorities now was looking for Thanos or Tony.

It two weeks now, but they still had nothing. Still didn't know Thanos whereabouts, still didn't know where Tony whereabouts. What broke Natasha's heart was how Pepper still trying to calm after all this situation. Pepper was still the same Pepper before the decimation. She still full on support to Avengers, though they all already failed her. Pepper sometimes she didn't came back to stay at the facility. Perhaps, she stayed at Stark Industries, handled all havoc chaos there. It must be a chaos for all industries, especially a big industry like that, lost many of their employees during the snap. Many people, many installations where still adapting to this new situation. Even the government still do adapting.

Natasha noticed how the snap did not only wiped half the humans, but half of almost everything; half of living creatures. When she was out the facility six days ago, she noticed there was almost no bird flying in the sky. Looked like Thanos snap did not only applied to humans, it did applied to any plants or animals too, and that was more depressing that it already did.

And Rhodey was the one who keep doing whatever the hell he did before in the government. Without Ross around, Rhodey was more like their trusted connection there. Sometimes, Rhodey assigned one or two from the team to help him and work to government as a freelancer. Like yesterday, Rhodey asked Steve to suit up and helped him to deal with a newly created thugs around the city. They fought as Captain America and War Machine, and deal that thugs who looted some unopened shop downtown. Rhodey in government also influenced them to stay positive about Avengers. He tried to make the government put their trust back in Avengers without them had to follow rules from the previously signed Accords; as long they tried to minimalist the casualties. In this kind of situation, the worlds need what its best; hence getting help from the so called Earth Mightiest Heroes.

As they try to put aside their respective egos, they tried hard to be good functioning housemates to each other. They began to rely on one another for domestic matters. They began to divide homework assignments; which changes every two days. Sometimes Bruce and Natasha had to do the washing up, sometimes they were in charge of preparing dinner. Sometimes the partner changes, sometimes Natasha with Rocket, sometimes Natasha with Steve, and they take turns like that.

Some funny things happened, when they had to pair Steve Rogers and Rocket Racoon. When both of them are bored with fast food they usually eat lately; after a long debate about what they would suggest as a dinner menu; finally the two decided to make their own home cooking.

Whether the idea from where; maybe Rocket found the recipe on the internet; they will try to make a grilled chicken salad. An actual dish will be very easy, if done by an ordinary person, not a super army frozen for 70 years or a space creature that resembles a raccoon. In fact, both leaders who excel in leading their own pack, were very bad at cooking.

"It's good," Natasha smiled after taking the smallest bite of the chicken and sipped her beer. Mostly sipped her beers. Natasha had to put her best smiles when Steve looked at her in disbelief. She had to chew that white pale chicken over much of organics. Lettuce, smallest bit of chicken, lettuce, and lettuce again and tomatoes.

Banner stuffed himself with organics, more lettuce and less dressing; he tried so hard not to pick the chicken. He even politely asked permission to eat in his room, avoiding the kind of how-it-is-taste questions. Steve grimaced after looking at both his housemates reaction. Was it that bad? Rocket was the one in grilling duty, he was just doing the dressing.

Rhodey looked at the dry chicken in with either disgust or suspicions. He dove his fork to the chicken and eyed it suspicious before putting it in his mouth. "Hm…" he hummed, chewing. "This is both burn and under-cooked." They ended up ordering pizza again, and made sure never partnering Steve and Rocket for dinner duty.

* * *

Later that night Pepper called in, informed that somehow got some kind of ping from Tony's Iron suit. It was like a distress call directed to Pepper's account, no voice only crackling sounds; but it indeed was from Tony's suit A.I, Friday. Pepper cried again that night, in Natasha's arm. With that kind of call, it was like giving her a false hope; in which she really wished wasn't a false hope.

Pepper stayed in Tony's room that night. Natasha had to tuck her sleep, because seeing Pepper that down, was not something usual. She remembered how Pepper rushed to enter the Facility. She held a kind of Ironman's head armor in her arms. She hugged the armor tightly, before explaining that that stuff suddenly was on by itself. Then the same moment, her computer received an email, indicating that she had a missed call, and where she tried to listen to the voicemail, it only cracking sound heard.

Pepper believed that it was sent by Tony, somewhere around the space. This meant that Tony would likely still be alive. Right? She rushed to the Facility in hope, this could be used to look for Tony. They could try to inter-jacked the network, since this support armor did using the same kind of network with the nano tech suit that Tony's wore just before he went missing.

But perhaps looking for another signal in outer space was not as easy like tracing back real location from an I.P address. It wasn't working like that. It was not like "just put your I.P address here, and we will show you the geographical location where it is coming from" thing. Here we really talking about a wide space, an outer space. Did the galactic system works the same like it did on Earth? Did they run the same latitude? And thus, this kind of duty went to Rocket, an citizen of outer space. Rocket did also volunteering himself on this duty.

* * *

Steve heard a knock on his opened door, it did broke his running thoughts. Natasha smiled and walked in his office room. Natasha put down a mug on his desk, so close to his hand. Steve arched his eyebrow and looked at the mug. "Not gonna offer you coffee, Rogers. More caffeine will get you anywhere but the bed," she smirked as she put her body up and sat on his desk.

"Impatient getting me on the bed, huh?" Steve chuckled and took the mug inspectly. He was ready to take a sip from the mug when he realized Natasha had been staring at him like a weird man. He turned red as tomato when he remembered what he was saying. "You know that wasn't what I meant, Nat."

Natasha laughed, she starred as he took a sip of his mug. "I've been giving anyone this, my own kind of recipe."

"So, I'm not that special huh?" Steve smirked and put his attention back to a screen in front of him. Few minutes ago he was just got report from Rocket, who looked like still working on Tony's whereabouts, downstairs.

Natasha almost ran her hand to ruffle his hair. He was such a dork to her. "You still have a tiny part in my heart, Steve." She tilted her head and also looked at his screen. "Rocket still working on it, doesn't he?" Steve nodded his head, he rubbed his face tiredly. "Yeah, he is. He sent me a report , just before you came in." Steve moved a bit so she could see the screen better.

"This is really beyond us, Nat. I don't know what else we should do," he sighed and lay his head down on his arms. "We've been tracking Thanos weeks by now, and we still have no idea where he is. And to think about Tony, God, I don't know what else to do, Nat. I really don't." he confessed.

Natasha ran his hand over his shoulder, traced his shoulder-blade with her thumb. She caressed him softly. "Me neither Steve. You know that I always act like I know everything, Steve, but honestly, I don't." Steve took his head up and looked at Natasha. "But we couldn't stop trying, Steve. We shouldn't. We are their only hope, Steve. We have to try everything, every possible thing."

"You know what, Nat," he smiled, "I think you are right. We owed them this. I owed Tony this." She smiled as she looked at his face. His hair was getting long, and his beard went unruly. "And I think you need to shave, Steve."

Steve rolled his eyes and took another sip of his drink. "And why would we talked about it," he jokingly grunt. "You know that I don't like to shaved, right?" Natasha dared to put her hand over his jaw, tracing his beard. "You just don't want to get used to it, Steve. I would like to help you cleaned up. And this hair need to be gone also."

"But I thought you like brown hair me?" Steve teased her. "Oh, says who?"

Steve held her hand which still on his jaw. "Says me."

"And you know what, Rogers?" She pushed herself down, on the floor. "I'll go to check Bruce. We still need info about that thing Fury set. Night, Steve" Steve nodded his head and let Natasha left his room; walked downstairs to the lab, checking on Banner who was now on pager duty.

Natasha walked in the lab and immediately greeted by Bruce whose head still down on his pad. He was maintaining data about the pager. "Everytimes the signal sent, the thing is crapped up." Bruce informed her. Natasha observed the pager. The pager showed a weird shape of symbol, for a few minutes, it went off, before finally went back on. "Still no idea who is the other line?"

Bruce shook his head. "Yeah, the pager itself simply like one of many pager we had in Earth, but it was most likely enhanced so it was able to send message through galaxies."

"You mean, Fury might have an acquaintance from outer space?" Natasha remembered how Fury always thought that Earth might be unprepared or out-gunned when talked about alien attacked. Little did she know, Fury was obsessed with the topic of outer space. He believed out there, there might be a supervillain which someday gonna took its toll on Earth. And _when_ it was happening, he would like to make sure we are ready to face them. She even remembered how Fury was talking about using Tesseract to build some kind of weapon.

Banner shrugged, he indeed believe that Fury was more than just a man of Earth. Fury was a visionary, if this might be true, he wouldn't be much in surprise. "Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. He might have already called for backup. He always have a backup plan for almost everything, right?"

That was true, Natasha knew that. But she really never thought that Fury knew someone from another space, beside Thor. But who was she kidding?

"Any idea who that might be?" Natasha had to asked. Banner shrugged again. "I'm not sure he knows Superman, and I'm pretty sure he is not even real." Banner tried to joke. "If only we have that kind of superheroes, Bruce. We have a god on our team already."

Banner offered her his tablet. "Speaking about God on our side, I've been in contact with Thor. He would like to visit us tomorrow. And if we don't mind, he wants us to visit him too."

"Where was he again?" Natasha looked at the tablet. It was a shaky video Thor sent. Looked like Banner really did teach Thor about Earth's way of communication. "Norway. He called it New Asgard, though."

"And they let him?" Natasha looked at the shaky video again. "And you teach him to send video?"

Banner nodded, swiped his tablet on Natasha's hand, and showed her another video Thor sent. "Well don't blame me, the last time he was here, I gave him one of those Stark phones around. Tony wouldn't mind, right?"

"If that could help us to keep in touch with him, I'm okay with that, Bruce. Just don't work so hard okay."

"And if you are worried about the other guy, don't need, Nat." Bruce shrugged and scratch his head awkwardly. "The other guy won't even showed up, for now. Like he was giving me a time to be in charge, at least for now." Natasha took a deep breath, and finally nodded. She would really appreciate if she didn't have to deal with an angry Hulk anytime now.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. I'm sorry if you guys found any typed mistaken, I'm writing this till 3 in the morning. T.T **

**Any thoughts?**


	5. Chapter 5

Day twentieth. Three week almost passed just like that. People who have lost all hope, started to gain their strength and rebuild of what was left. Many shops started to open again. The government of the entire world still doing census of their population. People who reported missing went increasing each day.

Rhodey was super busy being back and forth with military headquarters deal and monitoring the transmitting pager. One noon after he had lunch with his military comrades, he went back to the Avengers Facility and did what had been his usual routine. He went to the lab and monitored the pager, when something unusual happened. The pager went off.

Steve and Natasha, on the other side of the facility, looked at the monitor which used to maintaining data about the decimation victim. They watched solemnly, how the number on the screen get increasing, a sign that there was a huge amount of civilians became the victim of Thanos' snap. On Earth there was almost 3.2 billions humans confirmed went missing worldwide.

"This is a nightmare." Steve said with a stern face. The monitor showed face after face of Avengers that went missing or probably became the victim. Including Tony, that Queens kid- The Spiderman, Scott Lang-The Ant Man, Shuri and T'challa, and so many more. Natasha stared at the monitor screen, she looked at the news headline, talked about how the Decimation did to all around the world.. "I had a better nightmares." she said confirming.

Rhodey ran to meet Rogers and Romanoff in their workroom. "Hey…" he said as Steve turned his body around to look at him. "So that thing just stop whatever the hell that thing is doing." They rushed into the lab where they put the BMS. Natasha looked at the pager that was off. "Oh My God."

Banner goes to her side and explained, "Whenever the signal sent and finally crapped up." Steve looked at Banner confused, "I thought we bypassed the battery."

"Oh We did," Rhodey spoke up. "It's still plugged in, it just... it just stopped."

Steve looked at both Banner and Rhodey. "Reboot and send the signal again." Well, Steve didn't know much about nowadays technology, but didn't everything always work better after a reboot?

"We don't even know what this is." Banner tried to reason with him. Even Bruce Banner was no technician. He was just a scientist, expert in nuclear and gamma radiation.

Natasha looked at pager's screen. "Fury did. You just do it, please." And Fury gone, she cursed in her mind. This was her only clue for everything. She did sure if he used all his last effort to make this call, then it was meant something. "You tell me the second you get a signal. I wanna know who's on the other end of that thing." Natasha ended the discussion.

When Natasha moved around, a blonde woman stood in front of her. The horror of her face shown. "Where's Fury?" she asked.

Banner inspected her. "I'm sorry, but how the hell can you be here?" Steve noticed there were no alarm set off. Who was she? How could she be here? Where did she come from?

"I need to know where's Fury!" She demanded. Natasha glared at her. "I asked you, Who are you? And why did you ask for Fury?"

Steve held Natasha's arm, a sign asking her to calm down. "And I asked you first, where is Fury." Oh that woman really getting on her nerves, Natasha thought. The blonde woman sighed and finally introduced herself. "I am Carol Denvers. And I'm looking for Nick Fury."

Natasha raised her eyebrow inspecting Carol Denvers from head to toes. She sure wasn't wearing a humanly clothing, thus mean she was not from here. Carol Denvers looked at Natasha back. "This is a waste of time, where is Fury? I asked him to call me only if he really need my help."

Banner stepped up closer, he pointing toward the end of the room where the pager was. "So, that was yours?" Carol Denvers turned her attention backwards, past Natasha. Inside a glass room, there was a pager that she knew very deeply inside. It belonged to Fury which later she modified using Kree technology, so that Fury could use it when in precarious conditions or extreme emergencies.

However, it will automatically cease sending messages or even signals in the event that the receiving end happens to be already within range proximity of the transmitting device. That was why it went off exactly minutes before she entered the facility.

"It was Fury's, actually. I gave it to him." Carol Denvers said.

"So, you were the receiving end?" asked Rhodey, he was still wondering how the hell she could enter the facility.

Carol Denvers put her hand on the glass, and nodded. "Yes, I am." She turned back to face those avengers who stared at her like she was crazy. "Please tell me where is Fury, he is a friend of mine." She looked at Natasha, this time she let her guard down.

Natasha sighed. "There is something you need to know, Fury was not survive the snap."

Carol looked at her, as if she was talking nonsense. "The Snap?"

"There's been this, i don't know, alien?" Steve tried to explain but stumbled over his own words. "Thanos. He had a mission on balanced the universe thus using infinity stones to wiped out population."

"Hey new girl, mind me asking, but why now?" Rhodey asked rudely, he was losing his temper. "I mean, we've been trying to bypassed the battery for almost three weeks now. And why you show up now?"

Carol looked around, inspecting the room, the lab. "I was busy. It was not the first time Fury using the pager, and he often joked about it. So when this time, it keeps sending me signal, I thought this might be a real emergency." she honestly said. "Plus, travelling inter-galaxies really tiresome."

"Do you have a spacecraft?" Rhodey asked again.

"Not necessary, but I could fly one." Carol smirked, challenged Rhodey. She could sense that this guy didn't like her.

"I'm sorry for asking," this time Banner asked, to fulfill his curiosity. "But what are you? You were definitely not from here, right?"

Carol Denvers looked at Banner. "I was human, before being exposed with cosmic powers. You might know it as Tesseract. I am also a Kree hybrid."

"A Kree?" Banner who was ever stayed in outer space knew what were Kree. The Kree were a scientifically and technologically advanced militaristic race of mostly blue-skinned humanoids from the planet Hala. One of the most technologically efficient races in the galaxy, the Kree have special emphasis placed on their skills in genetic engineering and are known to the people of Earth as the progenitors of the Inhumans. They are a powerful force in the galaxy that control a vast empire characterized by its militaristic lifestyle, advanced technology, and arrogance.

When Hulk in quinjet, he left Earth and flew into space, encountering a wormhole which transported him to the alien planet of Sakaar. Stranded on an unknown planet, which stressed him out, Banner remained in Hulk form. Over the course of two Earth years, Hulk fought in the arenas and became a famous champion. Hulk also made sure that he would not switch back to Banner, by avoiding anything that could calm and reawaken his other self. And that was the first time they had been civilized one and another.

"You are a Kree?" Rocket Raccoon suddenly jumped on the high table and stood tall. He looked at Carol then asked everyone else, "But you are not blue. Or am I color blind, fellas?"

"I am a hybrid. I was injected by Kree's blood during a blood transfusion."

"And I fought one evil Kree before. Old-weird bald man. Bad for business." Rocket said while sitting down on the table. His little fury leg swung over just like a child told to sit still while waiting for their parents. Talking about Kree made him thought about his fellowship Guardians of the Galaxy. Did they survived Thanos?

"Look, we didn't know what was your intention here. But if you really wanna help, we are kinda short handed. We could really use the help." Natasha said this time. She was trying to understand this situation and trying so hard to give her trust to this Carol woman.

She nodded. "What can I do help, then? If Fury was here, he would like me to help you guys."

"One of our friends was kinda lost in outer space." Steve explained, but Rhodey cut off his words. "Tony Stark, five point eight feet tall, you know, he has a goatee."

Natasha looked at Carol, she stepped a little closer. If she really need the help from Carol, she should trust her entirely. If she was the one Fury called, then that meant Fury indeed trust her. And if Fury did trust her, then she must. They were in a kind of alien invasion right now, and Natasha already could hear Fury screaming an "I told you so" comments behind.

Nevertheless, they led Carol walked into the conference room, where the mostly work, gathering info. Rocket turn the monitor on, and the screen show some galaxies. "I found that he was on Titan. I meant, the Black Order must have brought them their. The Tony Stark this guys have been looking for." Rocket showed Carol the planet appearance and specimens. "I also traced my Benatar location, it was there too."

Steve stepped in and told them about what Rocket's found yesterday. "Most likely Tony along with his friend," he said pointing to the Rocket Racoon who walked on the table, before Rocket cut off. "Guardians of the Galaxy." Steve nodded and continued. "Right. Most likely Tony along with the Guardians of the Galaxy member, fought Thanos there. I don't know if survived, but Pepper came here, and there's a ping from Tony's suit, I think it's better we check this out."

Rodhey looked at Steve in confused. "You mean we go outer space?" Steve nodded his head. "If only I had my benatar, I would take you guys to the trip." Rocket Racoon sneered.

Carol inspected the screen, she could easily go there and check around if this Tony-man they had been looking for was there. This was the very least she could do to Fury. She remembered how Fury was helping her, how he put some sense into her. If this was the team Fury once lead, then she would no doubt helping them.

"I can go there to check, for you guys."

Rocket looked at her disbelief. "Haha. No kidding, but how would you go there? We didn't even have the tech to go there. I lost my pod, kiddo."

"I can fly up there. If I found your spaceship, I could bring it back. I was a pilot." Carol told them like it was an easy-peasy job to do. Well, it did. Carol had been doing the same favor in military services order.

Steve observed the conversation between Carol and Rocket. Rocket was their only expertist in outer space, but now they had this girl, an alien hybrid. Wouldn't it will be good, if at least they have Tony in their side again? He made eye contact with Natasha who shrugged and nodded her head.

"Fine, it settled then. We'll trust you if you said you could bring him back." Carol nodded and shook Steve's hand in agreement. "Deal, gentleman."

Carol nodded and walked out of the Room, leaving the confused Avengers. They really hoped if Carol wasn't bluffing at all. Having Carol around, really feel as if they had their kind of Superman on their side. Thus made Natasha almost smiled; remembering her conversation with Banner earlier.

* * *

After the Snap and watching almost everyone turned into dust, Tony and Nebula resorted to the Benatar in hopes of returning back to Earth and reuniting with the rest of Avengers. Tony almost lost counting how many days had been passed. This was really the first time he had been in outer space, he dreamt about this since his elementary. But this was not even close to what he imagined.

He never in his proper condition, thought he would go to outer space and fought a purple giant space alien, hand in hand. Alien invasion wasn't the first time happened on Earth, but this time felt differently, this time, Avengers did not fight as a team. They had gone in a different way, and he could only blamed Steve Rogers and his egocentric side of him.

If he was right, he had been in this Benatar; one blue friend of him told this; around more than three weeks already. The first week passed with they repaired and fixed the Benatar. The crushed on Titan did damaged the ship, but it was still good in making one trip back to Earth. His ironman suit was no better, the damaged from Thanos was crucial enough, so when someone attacked them any minute now, he would simply surrender. His suit was more defensive suit rather than the suit he used to use as attacking suit.

This ship was also not good in long time trip, since it was only a short amount of food supply. His blue friend, Nebula was a Lumphomoid or cyborg for short. In the first week, while they fixed the ship together, Nebula told him about herself, with persuasion from Tony, of course. Nebula was a Lumphomoid assassin, an adopted daughter of the intergalactic super villain Thanos, and adopted sister of Gamora, which she had no idea where she had been after his father brought her looked for Soul Stone.

She told him how once she was a right-hand of Ronan the Accuser during their quest to retrieve the Orb which later known as the Power Stone, fought against her own sister, Gamora. However later, after some series of forgiving and helping each other, she fought alongside the Guardians and a mission of herself to pursue revenge against her own father, Thanos.

The second week they fixed the ship, giving it improvement here and there to make sure they had enough oxygen or food supply or whichever ran out first. It was not like Nebula didn't et, he noticed Nebula was indeed a loyal friend. Since she was half robot, she almost postponed her own hunger, and declined every time Tony offered her their food. He knew this Nebula way to thanking him and to keep him alive due to hunger problem.

After the third week, he started to lose all hope, this Benatar almost ran nowhere. He had no idea where he was, he even had no idea how far they were from Earth. Thank God that this Benatar didn't have to re-fill its fuel, or else he wouldn't know where the hell were nearest Space's Gas Station. They almost ran out of oxygen and food supply.

So, one night he walked in the very north of the ship, took his armor helmet. He sat and looked at this very creation he did. Almost decades ago, when he kidnapped in a cave, he built an iron suit. And as a billionaire, he modified here and there hence getting him a proper Ironman suit. That was the turning point in his life, aside meeting Pepper Potts which he finally fell in love with.

Thinking about Pepper Potts brought his afraid of death side in him. Just a moment ago, he dreamt about getting a real family with Potts. How he dreamt he was building a normal family with her, how they were gonna have children and grow old together, watching them graduated from college, how he dreamt about their internationally blessed wedding, and here he was now. He left Pep alone on Earth, while he fought against alien. He held the iron helmet tight in his hand.

He turned on the iron helmet on his hand, if he was going to die in space, at least he would sent her a proper goodbye. "Hey, Miss Potts…" he started the recording. "Pep. If you find this recording… don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker." He almost smiled over his own words. "I don't know if you ever gonna see these. I don't know if you are still.." Alive. He was going to say this. Well, thinking about Pepper being of Thanos' snapped was hurtful, he was not going to think about it. "Oh God. I hope so."

He continued, "Today is day twenty one, no, twenty two. Eh, you know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space," Tony stared at the ship window. There was just plain space he'd been staring this whole week. When he was a child, he was wondering what stars would like, how do stars able to always shine, did it never get tired? But when you had the same view for the whole week, twenty four hours per seven days, it started to get boring and more depressing. "I'd say, I'm feeling better today."

Tony stirred up a bit, the arc reactor in his nano tech suit started to crapped up. He remembered how he built it in order to postpone his own death, to give him enough time to fix his father's and his mistakes. Perhaps, he was just another coward who was afraid of being dead. "The infection run its course, thanks to the blue meanie back there," he continued. He looked over his shoulder at Nebula who was doing whatever the hell she was doing. "You'd love her. Very practical." He remembered how Nebula was able to help him to make the arc reactor keep intact. "Only a tiny bit sadistic." He also remembered how Nebula did helping him to stitch up his open wound, not by literal stitch but using only God knows what tech she had.

"Some fuel cells were cracked during battle, but we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge to buy ourselves," he continued. "48 hours of playtime," he said, checking his own countdown. "But it's now dead in the water. We're 1,000 lightyears from the nearest 7-11." He chuckled. Oh how he cussed this whole spaceship for only getting food supply but very least on water. "Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning. That'll be it." If this was about damn time he was going to die, at least he would say a proper goodbye to Pepper. "And Pep, I...I know I said no more surprises, but I gotta say I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like… Well, you know what it looks like. Don't feel bad about this."

He was really trying so hard not to cry. He could feel it in his lung, how the less oxygen it gets, how it more hurt to his lung to breath. He rubbed his face in despair. "I mean, actually you could grovel for a couple weeks ,and then, move on with enormous guilt." With him being gone, he really wished Pep did move on. Even though his ego wanted her to grovel all years for her to finally move on, but if moved on would get Pepper to be happy, he was willing to set her free. "I should probably lie down for a minute. I'm gonna caress my eyes."

"Please know that...When I drift off, it will be like everything lately. I'm fine... Totally fine… I'll think about you. Because it's always you.." And with that, he sighed, and turned off the recording. He caressed the iron helmet a bit, before laid down on the ship's cold floor. Oh, if only you know how hard he was fighting against his own eyes not to close, because he was afraid if he did close them, he would never get a chance to reopen it back ever again.

The air was getting thin. Nebula could even feel it. And she could feel the awkward quite in the ship, as if she was alone and there was no one else beside herself. She walked around and found Tony laid down on the floor. For a glimpse second, she almost thought he finally surrender and rest in peace. She felt pity on him, how being together with him for three weeks, really changed her point of view about humanity. How she felt that sometimes Tony even offered her food, when she knew his stomach was rumbling and making sound. Somehow she was wondering how Tony was being considerate with her as Thanos' daughter; a daughter of evil who made all this chaos, yet he was still offering her food and using no single time to fight her or even killed her.

Tony even taught her how to play, as if he could still think clearly among all the chaos that had occurred. As entertaining, he said. The first time she heard it, she almost thought that something went wrong with his head, as if something clouded his judgemental. But, over the time, she noticed it was just a way of him not to go crazy. And that was why she was doing this. She helped him up, and sat him on the ship's seat. She saluted him.

Tony was just about to sleep when he realized there was a beam of light shining upon Benatar. A light that was bright enough to be able to dazzle his eyes, even in closed conditions. For the past three weeks, he almost lived in the dark. There was hardly a glimmer of light in space. All theories that say that planets or satellites can reflect bright light feel like mere figments now. When you were really present and watching, this was just like being in a planetarium; far from what he thought was great all this time.

He tried to open his tired eyes. His hands raised, trying to cover up the light that's blinding his eyes. He almost didn't believe when he saw a human figure out of those shadow, or could it be an alien that resembled a human? Or is that God, who Steve Rogers had been talking about. Was that God? Or was it an angel who was picking himself up to meet his death. Or, could all this be just hallucinations?

Tony finally could see that someone. A girl, barely over her twenties, using some kind of armor, with her long blonde hair tousled with wind, but still looking perfectly. He saw her smiled at him. Then a moment later, she was gone. She was nowhere in sight. Where the hell that girl was gone? Was she really an illusion? Did he really miss Pepper Potts so close to his death, so he still imagined a woman resembling Pepper? Did his brain really create the hallucinations of the blonde girl he hoped would help him survive this mess?

Suddenly, he could feel that the Benatar was moving a bit faster than it used to. He could feel that the Benatar was moving towards, passed some random planet. Was he really this close to his death? The further the Benatar was going, he could start to feel the air was getting better. Nebula walked and stopped next to him, informed him about a woman did help the Benatar to move faster than it should be; since they were running slow because of the gas leak. But his eyes demanded more sleep, demanded more rest, since he was almost not getting proper sleep most days for three weeks.

The moment he was sleeping, all he could see was the dream Scarlet Witch; Wanda, showed him when they fought Ultron. As if, it was more premonition than a dream about what he did scare most. All he could think was how they lost, how he lost fighting against Thanos. Then he closed his eyes, hoping it was getting better this time.

* * *

**Okay, chapter 5 published! Thanks for reading my story so far. It's finally the begin of Endgame's. Please bear with me, hoping this was not a flop, really hope you like it! Any thoughts? **


	6. Chapter 6

Natasha sat on Steve's desk. Lately, she really preferred to be around Steve. Near Rhodey, he talked only about how the military worked to conduct a census, listing every family who filed claims about their missing family. Rhodey could discuss this matter for hours; then tell how his role as a War Machine began to be reconsidered in the military. How the War Machine fought against street thieves who robbed non-proprietary shops.

Then how when she was near Banner; not that she wasn't happy to be around Banner, only, Banner always focused on his work. Instead of talking to her, Banner will just stay quiet and more about observed the movement of his scientific data. Banner would really focus on what he was focusing on.

And don't expect Rocket. When Rocket could say anecdotal chatter as a laughingstock, Natasha sometimes felt that it just simply beyond her. For her, talking to Rocket was almost like talking to a garbage-eating raccoon, even though he did not really eat rubbish. The more she spoke with Rocket, her head seemed to explode, a subconscious would always remind her that talking to animals would only make her approach madness faster.

Natasha looked at the computer screen on Steve's desk. She was debating herself whether to trust that new girl. Part on herself didn't believe that she could actually find Tony, blamed her for being pessimistic. But you know that space was kind of huge place right? She probably wouldn't get Tony in time, how long do you think for someone to fetch another in space? Wasn't the time a bit different there? What if by the time she found Tony, he was already … gone?

She scrunched up her nose, her head was getting dizzy again. She tried to calm herself and put away those thoughts. She needed to be strong, for the team. She felt the need to keep strong, to stay in a good perspective, in case everyone was getting nuts in this chaotic situation.

Steve was not back from the training room yet, therefore she was alone in his room. God, she was this close to depressing, she could feel it. She called Pepper and informed her that they had a guest. Someone from outer space. Pepper terrified, she almost screamed in disbelief. Natasha informed her that a new girl had come to the facility claimed as the one who Fury called. Pepper promised to visit Avengers Facility once her duty in Stark Industries done.

"Hi," Steve said, entered his own room. He just got out of the bathroom, he took a shower right after he exercised in the training room.

When he saw the door to his room open, at that moment, he realized the possibility of Natasha in his room. Later, he really preferred the presence of Natasha than his other colleagues. He can spend hours talking to Natasha. Sometimes even talking with Natasha could restore her enthusiasm, she strengthened herself, something she needed more recently. Therefore, he always allowed Natasha to enter his room, even though he was not in place. It's not like he has something to hide from him.

Natasha glanced over him, and handed him a tablet. "I've enough watched that video of Barton's going rough." Natasha sighed. She really fought this feeling hard not to go there and accompanied Clint. How she really want to comfort Barton or just asked if he was okay. But Steve already promised her, when Carol finally rescued Tony, they will talked with Barton.

Steve walked and sat next to her; he put his hand over Natasha's shoulder. "Few more days Nat. Trust me, after Tony's we will go to Barton." Natasha sighed but nodded eventually. She looked at his tired face. "Right. And you need your sleep, Steve. Human tends to sleep at least 5 hours a day."

"Being iced for seven decades already took care of that, Nat." Steve argued. He was really barely sleep after de-froze. Some moment just before he went iced still replaying on his head. The war, the soldier fought together with him, and the young lady at the military really took its toll on his head. But after the Avengers, all that slowly phasing through his head. Fighting with his new team; Avengers; as if his second chance of life, his second chance of new memories. Thus years after years, this was his new team, his new home.

Natasha chuckled, how she predicted that Steve with use that same reply was a real fun to her. "You almost remind me that every single time, old man." Natasha got up and walked to his door. "Be sleep then, Rogers. Don't dream about me," she snarled and ushered herself off his room. Steve could only shook his head, but not a second later, she peeked over his door and said; "And don't forget to shave, Steve. We don't really need a Santa Claus around the compound."

Steve smiled and closed the door for her. He didn't need another comment about his beard. Why everyone had to bother him with it? Thor could have long hair and long beard. Tony indeed have a goatee, so why couldn't he have a beard? He looked over his reflection through the mirror. Was this that bad huh? Eventually, his legs worked its way back to bathroom. He decided to shave it.

* * *

Natasha was just done grilled a whole turkey with Pepper's help. More like Pepper done that with the help of Natasha. It was not like Natasha bad at cooking, she was just avoiding doing cooking with a lot of steps and difficulty. Pepper came around seven o'clock that night, and brought all the food supply for them. Pepper also insisted on making them a good dinner, she said that they need to keep nutrizied. Thus she made them some grilled turkey and invited them all for dinner. Which Rhodey accepted, instead on going diplomacy dinner with China's diplomacy.

As if known the words "the more the merrier", Thor also came that night. He visited the compound, in order to give them real detail about New Asgardian. He promised would give them a proper tour in New Asgardian. Thor immediately met Banner and their closed themselves out in Banner's lab.

Steve was just barely done his shaving when he felt it. The ground was moving and the noise was like extended old machine, and it only worse because the vibrations were start coming. The mirror rattled like a freight train just passed.

Steve in his insting, got ready immediately and ran outside. Beside him, there were Natasha, Rhodey and the raccoon, Rocket, which also ran outside to check what was going on. Banner and Pepper also ran outside after they heard a sound almost similar to quinjet's noise.

They were right. From afar, a spaceship float in the sky, with its machine making running sound really hard. Under it, there was a glimpse of light accompanied the spaceship. It was Carol, she was helping the Benatar to land on Earth. Carol shared a look with Natasha, asked for confirmation that she was indeed trustworthy since she brought the Benatar back, Tony and Nebula included.

Steve ran immediately forward as the spaceship's door opened. He helped Tony walked out the stairs. Tony's appearance was pitiful, he lost much of his weight, he was almost quite the same with pre-serum himself. Steve helped Tony out, holding his arms, almost ignoring the blue alien next to Tony. That was a question for later. But for now, Tony was his priority concern.

Tony looked at Nebula to inform her that he would be okay to walk out with Steve. "Couldn't stop him," that was all Tony could say.

"Neither did I." Steve informed him.

Tony sighed. "I lost the kid." Tony just remembered about Peter Parker. The kid he recruited in order to get Captain in his right mind. He remembered about Peter. When he said that had someone in mind, referring to Spider-Man whom he had just been researching, he thought Spiderman would be a good new potential allies.

"Tony, we lost." There, Captain America finally said it. He finally admitted it, admitted that Thanos won. Tony gasped, then he remembered someone particular. "Is..umm?" Tony found it hard to say it. The words were in the tip of his lips but he couldn't make it out.

Pepper ran towards him. "Oh my God!" Pepper sobbed and hugged him tightly. Tony gasped in relief. How those weeks he couldn't sleep without thinking about her. How all those nights he spent worrying about her, and finally here she was. Stood right in front of him, pretty much alive. He really missed her so much. Damn that pop references, about how you finally realized how important someone until you lost them. He kissed her head and walked inside the facility. God, he really missed Pepper, a lot.

With no doctor around, Banner once again became their only doctor expertise. They laid Tony on a bed in their infirmary, Banner checked his pulse, his heart rate, and checked about his cracked arc-reactor. There, Tony laid helplessly as Banner also checked some of his wound. Pepper had helped to clean off the wound from dried blood, and she also helped Tony changed his clothes.

From his right elbow to his hand there was a huge wound; there were no skins, only raw and weeping flesh in various shades of pink and red. The same can be said of his knee. Pretty much it had been heavily oozing out blood and there was a bluish-purple bruise forming around it. The bruise that had begun as a purple stain above his eyebrow had sunk into the socket itself, and so now it had the appearance of a black eye.

Tony rolled his shirt up when Banner fetched closed a wound around his abdomen with bandages. Purple welts were scattered across his abdomen like a disease. It hurt to breathe and sometimes he wondered if some ribs were cracked. He badly injured, surprisingly how he still manage to stay alive these past weeks with the huge amount of blood that he lost. Even some bruise faded its color from purple to yellow as the hue of his skin returns. And as Banner sedated him, Tony finally had his peaceful sleep, meanwhile Rhodey and Natasha looked at the scan for internal damaged, aside from broken ribs.

The next morning, Tony, who was still with an IV intacted in his left hand, walked into the gathering room of the Avengers. His body was not strong enough for him to walk around, making him have to use a wheelchair. There, he saw Natasha and Steve and another girl he hardly recognized. But, he was sure he saw her already, somewhere.

That girl noticed him entering the room, and immediately walked to him and hold his wheelchair. The girl helped him to push his wheelchair moved forward. He hated it when he felt so weak. Steve and Natasha turned their head on him, paused their heated conversation and greeted him as soon as they noticed him.

"You must be Tony Stark." the girl behind him talked. She stopped pushing his wheelchair and walked in front of him, stood still next to Natasha. "And who are you again?" he asked wondering where the hell he thought he had ever seen her. It was more rhetoric than a real question.

That blonde girl, offered a handshake, with Stark gladly accepted. "I'm Carol Denvers. You might not know about me, the rest of your team didn't." she answered firmly. "I was the one helping you back to Earth." she said simply as if it was a matter of fact.

Tony ignored her, and looked at Natasha. He wanted some answers.

"It's been twenty three days since Thanos came to Earth. World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census." Natasha informed him, as the screen started to show the data they had collected this past weeks. It showed how many numbers of missing persons around the world. Natasha noticed that look of him, so she continued. "And it looks like he did…" Natasha sighed, she looked at Steve as he nodded his head, allowed her to continued again, "He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out…" She stopped mid-sentences. Her voice cracked, she almost cried at the moment, she felt the emotional feeling kicked her hard in the gut "...fifty percent of all living creatures."

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked her.

Steve sighed and replied, "We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through." Steve remembered how Thor told them about Thanos getaway, after snapped his fingers. Tony found it hard to believe, Avengers he knew was not this vulnerable. He looked around, and found a grumpy; pissed Thor. "What's wrong with him?" Tony had to asked.

"He's pissed. He thinks he failed." someone answered him. He looked around, that was definitely not Natasha or the new girl. Who was it again? Catherine? Caroline? Carol? It wasn't Steve or Rhodey or Banner, because he would still be able to recognize that voice. "Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that goin' around, ain't there?" that voice continued.

Tony finally looked at the edge of the room. He noticed that figure since he entered this room, but never in his mind thought it was a living creature. "Honestly, at this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." he said pointing at that creature.

"Maybe I am." That furry creature sarcastically replied him in annoyance.

Steve noticed the tension between them, so he broke the silence. "We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing." Tony turned his attention away from the creature and looked at Steve in disbelief.

Deep down he wanted to curse Steve. This was his first meeting, after they had a great fight at the airport. He still couldn't think about how Steve could be so careless and act stupidly. How he was more concerned with his feelings, than using his brain to functionally thinking. And that's where he was upset with him, Steve had betrayed him. He chose to after his brainwashed best friend, who killed Tony's parent, and tore apart the Avengers. He never understood why Captain America had to hide the truth about his parent's homicide, wasn't Captain America should be a trustworthy person, like his own father always bragged about.

"Tony you fought with him." Steve said it. If anyone, it should be Tony that perhaps known where was Thanos whereabouts. He felt the anger built up inside him, thus saying, "Who told you that? I Didn't fight him."

"No. He wiped my face with a planet while a Bleecker Street magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight…" He told them. It was still a painful memory to remember. "Okay.." Steve said trying to argue. "He is unbeatable."

"Did he give you any clues? Any coordinates, anything?"

Tony rolled his head, was Captain America always this naive? "Pfft!" he made a sound. "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."

"Tony I'm gonna need you to focus."

"And I needed you." Tony argued. The more Steve talked the more the anger built up, raised; boiling hot inside of him. "As in, past tense," he continued, "That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry."

Tony was done with this conversation. He tried to get up from the wheelchair. "You know what I need? I need to shave!" He knocked some of the utensils on the table while standing. "-And I believe I remember telling,-" he tried to snap the IV injection in his left hand. "why that otherwise, that what we needed, was a suit of armor around the world. Remember that?" He asked Steve directly. "Whether it impacted our precious freedoms, or not. That's what we needed."

"Well that didn't work out, did it?" That didn't really work out. Instead of robots to protect the world, the AI went wrong and created Ultron, which became more disaster than ever.

"I said we'd lose. You said, "We'll do that together, too." Well guess what, Cap? We lost. And You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers? We're the Avengers? Not the Prevengers? Right?" he asked Rhodey who got near him and tried to calm him down.

Rhodey held his weak body, "Okay. You made your point. Just sit down, okay?"

Tony argued him back. "- No, no. Here's my... She's great, by the way," he said pointing at Carol. "We need you. You're new blood. We are a bunch of tired old mills.." He pushed Rhodey away, and walked straight to Captain America. "I got nothing for you, Cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options… Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, you liar…" Really, he really thought he passed his anger to Cap long time ago. But seeing him again today, talking with him, trying to reason with him, brought back all his long forgotten anger.

He crushed his arc reactor right on his chest, he crushed it in his hand, and shoved it back on the great Captain America's hand. "Here, take this. You find him and you put that on. You hide." After he said it, he fell to the ground, his knee was unable to hold his body any longer. "I'm fine.. I-" Then all Tony remember was a blackout.

* * *

Later afternoon, Rhodey informed the team that Banner already gave him a sedative, so he would probably be out for the rest of the day. Pepper was there, holding his hand in his sleep.

"You guys take care of him. And I'll bring a Bezurian elixir when I come back." Carol Denver said as she walked out the facility. Steve looked at her weirdly, and asked her where she was going? He and Natasha shared a look for a few seconds, they were wondering if they heard it right.

"Hey. You know we usually work as a team here, and between you and I we're also a little fragile." Natasha said as she ran to catch up with her. "We realize, up there, is more your territory but this is our fight, too." Steve backed her up, and reason with Carol. If she wanted to kill Thanos, or at least avenged them, they really needed to be there too.

Then Nebula told a story about the time Thanos tried to perfected her, he might brag about his great plan. Nebula told them about where the possibly Thanos would go once his plan was fulfilled. To the garden, he said.

Rhodey raised his eyebrow, "That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan." he said sarcastically.

Rocket stood and played some inter-dimensional galaxy on screen. He started, "When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it… until two days ago." The screen then zoomed on a planet, Rocket continued, "On this planet." Thanos was there. Natasha replayed the how the screen showed another power surge happened on that planet.

Carol nodded her head and told them to attack Thanos, to steal back the infinity stones. "We use them to bring everyone back." Carol said affirmatively.

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this...I mean, we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try," Natasha said it, asking agreement from the others. She really thought so, that this way was the least they could do for everyone in the Snap. Even if they had to die, at least they were die trying.

Then the arguing keep coming between them, how they tried to understand this suicide misison. How that this time it would be any different than last time. Some believe this might be their chance, well others believe this was just a stupid mission, if they lost once to Thanos, why bother to try again and make second or third loss.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve said, once they finally agreed on doing this mission.

So here was their agenda for today's mission. As Steve promised her, they were going to visit Barton. While the others were researching about either Thanos or Tony, Natasha never stop looked for Clint Barton. She had been on his tail for a week straight now, she knew where he was going. They would try recruiting him back to the team, as they were short in numbers. With Tony was out from this mission, Barton's help would really be helpful. They would try to put as many numbers they could get into this team.

"Where was he again?" Banner asked as they seated on Benatar. Carol and Rocket would be their pilot and co-pilot in this journey. Natasha gloomed; looking over the pilot seat, she and Barton used to be this kind of duo in mission. How they knew each other well, also helped in doing mission. They worked simultaneously, even when operated a flying jet. Noticed how Natasha wasn't answering his question, Steve stepped in and answered him instead, "Sterling, Colorado. He had been doing this vigilante act lately, now he was tracking down a cartel long known for illegal gun distribution."

"Barton has gone rough." That was all Natasha said as she put her head down, she really wished this time Barton would fight next to her instead of against her.

* * *

By the time Barton entered his newly rented apartment, he knew something was off. He recognized it easily when he saw the chair slightly away from his dinner table. He noticed, behind the wall over his kitchen; he could feel someone's presence there. He had glimpsed a flash of light from the corner of his eye. Possibly was a reflection of light from the outside his apartment, most likely iron based or other hard object that could reflect light. He smirked noticing that his spy skill was never wore out.

"Captain," he said it under his breath, noticing that the notable person would able to hear him out. "Greetings from me," he continued as he took of a mask that we wore. He put down his bow and arrow next the cupboard close to him. "You can come out now, Cap."

Captain America, Steve, slowly out from his hiding spot and grinned. "Hello Hawkeye."

"If you here to catch me, you won't succeed, Cap. I will not going easy on you. But friendly reminder, I was on your side, remember?" Clint shrugged and offered both of his hands, as if expecting on a cuff.

"Clint." another soft voice called behind him. Natasha. He recognized that voice anywhere. "Natasha," he greeted her back even without turned his head around. He heard Natasha stepped closer and walked in front of him, she stood next to Cap.

"What did I do to owe a visit from you both? How did you both even find me?" he rhetorically asked as he opened his fridge, took out a box of orange juice and drank it right from the carton.

Natasha glanced over his bow and arrow, pointed at them with her look. "They gave it away. You used the same method as Hawkeye did, Clint. I know your methods." Natasha replied.

"Okay."

"Clint, Laura-"

"No, don't." Barton cut off her word and warned her. He stared right into her eyes, and she noticed pain immediately.

"We found where Thanos. He was the one making all this happened." Natasha explained, she didn't know if Clint was aware about Thanos.

Clint shrugged. "I don't care Nat. These past weeks I've done looking for a way to bring back-" he stopped, remembered how confused he was when he looked for his family. They just disintegrated into dust, right before his eyes. He remembered how this past week, he tried to calm himself, tried to accept this new reality, but he found it hard to accept. Thus hunting these mobster, cartel or any other bad guys, he hoped would cure the pain inside his chest. How hunting these bad guys could satisfy his hunger of revenge to whoever did this to his family. "- and I found it hard to believe in any other shit anymore."

Natasha wanted to hug him, but now was not the time. "We found a way to bring back anyone." she said it, she noticed how his pupils dilated the moment she said it. "But we are not sure if this was going to work."

There was a flop in his chest. "Make sure it works then going for me okay." Barton warned her. She had no idea how he already tried to find a clue about what happened over and over again. Each time was a new start, a fresh hope, a chance, eventually leave to the disappointments after.

"We need you on board, Clint." Steve said it, tried to reason with him.

"Last time I follow your order, I became a house prisoner, remember Cap?"

"Look Barton, we-"

"Stop it both of you. I'm not doing whatever you guys have in mind. Don't give me hope if it only disappointed me more later."

"Clint," Natasha put her hand over his arm. "Listen to me, I'm sorry about what happened to Laura, to Cooper, to Lila, and to Nathaniel. I'm truly sorry."

Steve nodded his head, "I'm really sorry for not being there for you too. We are sorry that we've not fight him hard enough." He continued when he noticed that Clint finally made peace with his inner thoughts, "We just found Tony, he still alive, not dead. And we just found a lead, a way to bring everyone back."

Barton looked at him, then at Natasha, looking for a solid confirmation. Natasha nodded her head and continued, "What we are going to do, we really hope will bring anyone back." Barton sighed. It was such a tempting offer, to bring back his family. People talk about "mixed feelings" like it was an exception, but for him it was the norm. I'm scared to try and scared not to - what he actually do depends on the balance between the two. He was not sure but he was going to try it this way for a while; he couldn't keep on repeating the same stupidity and expecting a different result.

"I'm sorry I must say no. I've been retired from Avengers. What happened was your duty, mine was no longer intact."

Steve looked at how devastated Natasha, how disappointed her. "Clint, we really need your help."

"Fight whoever that Thanos first, then we talked."

"Fine." Natasha said, accepting his order. If Carol was that superhero like she claimed herself, there might be a chance they were going to win this time. And by the time they collected the stones back, she would back to informed Barton and everything had been taken care for. Thus getting his family back would be a surprising surprise. Then they bid their goodbyes and left his apartment, with a bit of disappointment and more about determination.

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**Thanks for reading chapter 6! Hope you like it. If not, please tell me. **

**A/N : I know some of you hate him (because ****_that_**** scene), but it found it weird that they went to ambush Thanos without inviting Clint.**

**So, Any thoughts?**


	7. Chapter 7

They were on Benatar, on their journey to Planet 0269-S, a planet also known as the Garden, according to Nebula; was a greenfield planet where Thanos would reside after he was completing his mission. Rocket started his joke, asking anyone among them who have never been into space. Actually it's just a joke question, but whether Steve, Natasha or Rhodey unconsciously raise their hands, and get scorn in return.

Going to outer space was something not usual for was all looked like a dark blanket, contrasting with blacks and yellows, and the occasional white, which is shaped as a circle and sometimes a crescent. There are stars which dot the blanket in an intricate pattern. The frame around the exotic surroundings was filled with ominous brittle silence, for there was no gravity to hold firmly. So this was what it felt like to be in space.

Natasha looked at Steve next to her, surprised how could Captain America be so calm at the moment. If only Clint Barton had participated in this trip, he would have been very talkative, too excited. Clint would like this very much, how some time as a dork he would chatter about being an astronaut, even the time they fought the Chitaurian, Clint still blabbed how he became the Great and Terrible to his children. The kid of Barton did also like that kind of story, the story about how terrible their dad fought Chitaurian using his arrow. Fought against alien with only bows and arrows.

She noticed Steve opened up his compass, the compass he would always brought everywhere, even on missions. One day on their run, she picked up the compass to look what was inside. Before that, she would always curious about the compass that would make Steve angry or went insane if he forgot where he put that. One night on their longest night in their runaway from the government, Natasha would wait until Steve properly slept and lent the compass for awhile. She peeked inside, and noticed there was an old photograph of a woman.

The woman was barely thirty, probably still in her early twenty. She was beautiful, her wavy and neat hair would be contrast to her ginger red-sometimes unruly hair. The photograph looked so old, perhaps that was the girl from his past. Observed the picture, made her realize she saw that girl somewhere. Glad her good mind, brought her to the moment when she and Steve looked for information about a USB Fury gave him. She suddenly remembered saw that woman's photograph in the military base. Then she remembered one of S.H.I.E.L.D foundation histories. It was her, the director manager of S.H.I.E.L.D. She was basically one of the first foundation members.

After that night, she started to learn anything about her. About her history which crossed with Steve's past. She didn't even know why she did that, but something about that woman always picked her interest. Little did she know, Steve's past also picked her interest.

Natasha noticed how he would unconsciously opened the compass and stared at her photograph whenever he was uneased. She stared at Steve uneasy face, his face was stern,showed his hardened expression. "This is gonna work, Steve." Natasha said, trying to comfort him. Steve grieved on the inside, but believed that he hid his sorrow from everyone. Steve was one of those people that she could read easily. One could see it in his eyes, his movements, his drooping posture. However, she never dared mention it to him.

"I know it will." Steve turned to look at Natasha, they shared their common gazed. We had feelings that were not visible, and the only thing we did was to prevent ourselves from being miserable. That was Steve kind of motto lately. "Because I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't."

Captain Marvel exited the Benatar and flew down to Titan II taking reconnaissance, informing the other Avengers that there were no satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind. It was only Thanos there. Thanos transported himself to the Garden with the Space Stone in order to begin his life, as he had achieved his lifetime goal of destroying half of the universe with the Infinity Stones by snapping his fingers.

They stopped the Benatar and landed on Titan II. Don't touch the rocks. They took it very carefully since it was a stranger land. They walked like avoiding a plague. Don't touch the water. If your skin so much as brushed any of the plants, you're dead. The air was okay for most, kinda scary when since elementary you had been thought that you would need a tank to breathe. There were also some cool ruins, but it was really up to you if it was worth it to go there, because this would not be a good time for space tourism.

On the planet's surface, Thanos was taking his day off, picking crops from his field, before going in and preparing a stew to eat. This was really what he expected when he planned all this grand mission of his. As he sat down in his hut, he was suddenly blasted by a photon blast from Captain Marvel before she bursted into his hut and puts him into a headlock. Bruce Banner in the Hulkbuster also burst from the floor further restraining him, with War Machine joining and holding down Thanos' other hand.

Thor then flew in and sliced off Thanos' left arm with Stormbreaker, releasing the Gauntlet and causing great pain to the giant Titan. Then Captain America, Black Widow, and Rocket Raccoon entered the hut, and Rocket flipped over the gauntlet, and they were all shocked when they saw that the stones were no longer in the gauntlet.

Steve started, "Where are they?"

Thanos still in Captain Marvel's headlocks, grunted as he was trying to say, "The universe required corrections," he grunted again, "After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation." Banner got angrier and pushed off Thanos, this was so unlikely him, and Banner knew it. Before the snap, he remembered clearly how Thanos was outpowered Hulk, how Thanos would just snapped Hulk in easy if he really meant it. And that was the only reason he could thought about Hulk chickened out until now.

"Where are the stones?" Natasha stared at the giant Titan and tried to read his expression. "Gone," he said. "Reduced to atoms." he said it again.

"You used them two days ago." Banner shouted out, barely scream.

"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me." Thanos explained to them. Thanos used the Infinity Stones for the second time to destroy themselves in order to avoid being tempted to use their power and knew that the Avengers would attempt to reverse the Snap with them, though this ended up scarring him and the Infinity Gauntlet even further. "But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable." he said, ensuring that The Avengers would not be able to use them again and undo the Snap.

"We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying." Rhodey told them. He had to be lying, he should be lying, because if he didn't, that means all of this meant nothing. All their hard work these past three weeks merely a waste of time.

Nebula looked at Thanos expressions. "My father is many things," Nebula started. "A liar is not one of them." She never expected her words to hurt herself so much, it felt like a thousand knives just pierced through her heart. They both know his words were the truth, her and Thanos. Even if she wanted to deny it and fight about it, in the end they are still true. Because in the end, it was the truth, Thanos never lied, not for her nor for her sister. His father was really a man of his word.

Thanos thanked his adoptive daughter for trusting him after all this time, he would never have expected that after all of these, Nebula was still one of his adoptive daughters and would serve him right. Then, he admitted that he shouldn't have been too cruel with her, before an enraged Thor cut off his head in retaliation. It first in his eyes, then a tension of his muscles, an inability to think clearly soon followed. The rational Thor was offline and the animalistic side of Thor reverted all his emotion and balled up to an anger. Suddenly his liberal opinions were gone, his ability for nuance and emotional generosity were gone too. His fists stayed firmly by his Stormbreaker, before he swung it up and cut off Thanos's head.

"What... what did you do?" Rocket stared at him with a horror.

Thor looked at the lifeless, headless body of Thor. "I went for the head," he said before walking out the hut. That was all he could remember of Thanos, the horror in his eyes when Thanos basically mocked him for not aiming for his head. His words taunted him for the past three weeks. And finally when he had the chance now, he did what he most longed for, went for his head. This time, he would not making the same mistake, no one had to tell him that twice.

Thor left the hut, leaving the rest of the Avengers who was still in shock and disbelief. Was this really over know? They lost their change to revenge, didn't they? Nebula kneeled over him, and closed his eyes. His father might be a bad father figure, but he was once a father she truly respected, more than anyone.

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**Chapter 7 finally done! Sorry for the delay, I've been busy these days and finally able to write after midnight. Sorry for a really short chapter, my eyes really drowsy now. Thanks for reading, anyway. Promise you, next time will be the start of the 5 years missing, means more Romanogers moments. Tell me what do you think for this story so far, thank you! Love you guys 3000! **


	8. Chapter 8

_Hi everyone, I know that the previous chapters were just like a glimpse of the Endgame story. I just added a few additions to the storyline to make it look more make sense (at least I think so). If you are impatient, where is Romanogers moment, it will just starting from this chapter.  
But I will not only tell them 24/7, more about how they interact with other avengers, and how they interact with each other. Until it reach to the point where Natasha would only single-handedly avengers facility like in Endgame. I know it will be very long, hopefully you will always be with me until the end of this story later._

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**Happy reading!**

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The sun was still resolutely below the horizon and the street was as dark as some old black and white movie. As Steve tried to close his eyes, he felt the heady pull of dreams, beckoning backed to play. He turned begrudgingly to the light switch and flicked it, immediately the room bathed in that unnatural electric glow. He should do something about that, get some fancy soft glow bulb, or perhaps just a bedside lamp.

He got up and peered out over his window, outside the sidewalk that would bustle in a few short hours was quiet, the concrete oblivious to whether it is midday or midnight. He turned away and looked at the wall clock near his bed, next to his bookshelves. It was already six in the morning. He usually was a morning person.

He peeked outside his window, his eyes taking in the bright colors squeezing through clouds. It was chilly, he thought, picked up a gray sweater laid on his bed, pulling it around himself. The scent of rain hung in the air as he watched the sky darkened and the colors fade away as morning fully arrived. No wonder he overslept, it was a cloudy morning. Yellows, and reds disappeared first. Blue soon followed, overtaken by the grayness climbing over the tops. But as the mist thickened, the unmistakable roll of thunder growled threateningly. It didn't take long until the husky color faded. Rain splattered all over the window's glass.

The glass was splattered with rain drops, as even more came down. The clouds swirled slightly above the facility, their pale grey color suggesting a long, mild storm. A stream of water came pouring towards the soaked grass below.

He walked out of his room and noticed that the facility was hardly functioning. There was no more agent stayed and living here, beside the Avengers. They all had been home-schooled, and back to reconcile with their own family. Around this new era, a family time would be a better option. They would waiting order from home, and would always have to be ready when needed. Even the avengers hardly functioning right now. Thor was really gone after their useless ambush on Thanos the other day. Followed by Captain Marvel who bid goodbyes for a while, she said and he quoted that there were a lot of other planets in the universe and they didn't have the Avengers to protect or to help them.

He walked down the hall when he noticed Natasha's door slightly ajar. He thought that might she be forgotten to close it properly, after went outside for perhaps going thirsty in the middle of the night. He was going to ignore it until he heard a sound of whimpering almost crying sound inside. His curiosity peaked at it finest, as he peeked his head inside and permitted himself entering her room. He might not be a real gentlemen now, that he entered a woman's room; the lady perhaps still in her deep slumber; without permission.

He noticed how Natasha whimpered in her blanket. How she snuggled there, like a child after being abused by her own parents; it still left a lot of space around her, how tightly she hugged herself as her body shook a bit when the bed dream took its toll.

In her nightmares she was trapped on a military ward. As she was being pushed, she tried to move her hands without feeling the restriction of the straps. Her head was as clear, no trace of the "madness." She strained against the black polyester with every ounce of strength and still she couldn't budge. Her back hurt right from the base of her spine to the tailbone.

She tried to get up from her bed and managed to succeed. Then she found herself in an empty room, except there was a child who looks nothing like a child. Her dark red hair spralling in the bed, as she was wrapped so tightly inside a thin mattress that she could only see her feet and somehow... her right arm... which has become a knife from her elbow to the place her fingers should be. She ran to her, tried to calm her, yet she wields the knife in blind panic. Someone pulled her away from the knife blade and instead she found herself sitting on the end of a large bed.

She woke up before she could dig the knife. But she could still feel the presence of the chilling knife around her abdomen, digging deeper into her. Its sharp edges was running around her smooth skin ready to pierce. She could hear her own heavy breathing and the sweat from her forehead was now enough to fill an entire empty bottle. It was only a nightmare, but it left her with the worst memories of the night of her graduation ceremony.

She opened her eyes, kicked her blanket and tried to catch her own breath. Then she noticed someone was there, inside her room. She turned around and found Steve stood awkwardly by her door. In this dark room, she noticed how weird herself that she knew it was him by his silhouette. "Steve?" she asked, to make sure her notion was right.

Steve walked closer the moment Natasha turned her bedside lamp on. "Sorry, I-" Steve lost his word, he didn't find or couldn't think of any good reason why he should be in her room, which basically still in the very early morning with cloudy weather. Natasha shook her head slightly and smiled at him. "It's okay."

No, this was beyond okay, his ma told him that as a man, a gentleman he should not ever entering someone's private chamber, let alone a lady without permission. "I know it's weird, but your door was open." he said while pointing at the door behind him.

Natasha raised her nicely plucked eyebrow. "And that was your clue to get inside?" Natasha teased him, as she noticed how uneasy of him.

"Look, I'm sorry, for entering without permission, I'll leave now." Steve as awkward himself, turned around and prepared to open the door. He stopped when he heard Natasha chuckled behind him.

"No, don't. Perhaps you just save me from my nightmare." Natasha talked like it was okay for him to stay here, so he stayed. He turned back around and walked closer to her as she patted her bed and let him to sit there. Steve simply shook his head no, he preferred stood there by the wall, and keeping his distance. "You had a nightmare?" Steve asked. His brain always stop functioning when he was this awkward. Of course she did, didn't she just said so?

"Yeah, about night of my graduation ceremony." Natasha looked away, noticed how her blanket sprawled on her bed, she shooed the crumple away. Steve stayed calm before he said something stupid, he let her continued. "I was always holding back so I wouldn't have to go through the ceremony," she said, remembering how she proceeded to relive her experiences during her graduation doing some training, each day the training got harder and as if pushed her to her very edges. "She made it clear that the ceremony was necessary in order for me to take place in the world."

"Nat, you don't have to tell me that, if you don't want to." Steve tried to console her, he walked and sat on her bed, he tempted so hard not to hug her. He knew she hated that. Natasha nodded, she stopped. Steve could always see her more clearly as a person rather than a problem creating dependent. He always understood the significance of things, why hurtful comments hurt so he was that listening ear, the one who would wrap her just with his soft face and kind words. Up until now she didn't even know why she felt it was hard to tell him the point of this story. That she was sterilized as to avoid any distractions and focus solely on her missions. The dream was almost always be the same.

About how she felt having so many red in her ledger. About how she felt being an assassins was always be the burden of her life, how it turned her into a monster. And how afraid of her talking about a family. She was trained not to care about anything, about anyone except her missions. How sometimes she longed to have her own family, to have her own children if she was not sterilized, but in the end, her nightmare always brought her to the same dream. How she dreamt that her own child could turn into the assassins instead of her. And that was more terrifying for her, she wouldn't not trade someone's life for herself.

"Outside is raining." Steve told her, trying to change the topic.

Natasha raised her eyebrow again. Steve really did good at changing topic. "And that's why the Captain America against his own morning jog schedule?" Steve nudged her slightly with his elbow.

"Are you going back to sleep?" Steve asked her out of nowhere. Natasha shook her head. With the morning anxiety, she was afraid she was nowhere near back to sleep.

"Good, you just stay here, I'll be back with breakfast."

Natasha looked at him like he was just grew a second head or couple of horns on his head. Steve just shrugged and said, "Well, while I was on the internet, they say women love to have breakfast in bed. You were gloomy, and I thought perhaps this could bring up back your mood."

"Steve-" but he cut her off, "I won't accept no. Don't worry, this time I will not burnt the kitchen." And with that he rushed and left her room, leaving Natasha gaped.

Natasha wasted no time, soon after Steve left her, she got out of bed and stared at her own reflection in the mirror, as she walked to her bathroom. She was as shocked as her reflection did. Her hair was as wild as the jungle, untamable and unruly. Her once stunning blonde hair now vaguely resembled a birds nest and hair band that had once held them in place was long gone. And this was what Steve had been looking for the past hour? It was a mess.

She hurried up tied it back up in a bun, and ran to her bedroom. She washed her face in a rush, took a paste and brushed her teeth fast. She checked her newly refreshed face and walked straight to the closet, she won't look like a teenager who went for a slumber party. She changed her cartoon pajamas, into her oversized t-shirt and her yoga pants.

She tried to act as natural as it possible to sat on her bed; waiting for him. Then she heard a knock over her door and smiled as he peeked his head in. Steve, by then, walked with a tray full of food. She could smell something vanilla, maybe pancakes?

"Hi," Steve said, walked inside as he brought tray in his hand. He put it down, on the bed, as he sat in the very edge of the bed. Natasha could see how hard he was trying. There, on the tray, a plate of pancakes with butter on top, some bananas chop and few of strawberry slices, and a glass of orange juice. "Wow, you really pampering me, Rogers."

Steve smiled yet gave his head a slight shake, "Anything for the lady." He was expecting a good input as Natasha picked up a bite of pancake with her fork. "It's delicious, Steve." He rubbed the back of his head, and grinned. "I could make pancakes better than grilled chicken."

"And I could get used to this," Natasha smiled as she put much more bites into her mouth. Steve Rogers might not be good at making dinner, but he was a hell of a chef when it was about breakfast. She sliced it a bit with her fork, pinching the slice with bananas, and offered it in front of him, "Say "aaah" Rogers." Steve looked at her bewildered, but eventually opened his mouth. He knew she would stay like that if he hadn't opened his mouth. Natasha was always persistent. They continued to eat in silence, sometimes Natasha would feed him too, some pancakes, some bananas, she even offered him her glass of orange juice, which he gladly accepted.

Natasha noticed by now, that the rain had stopped. No more thunder rumbling, no more the sound of rain hitting on the roof, she was glad it was over. "Steve," she started when Steve was busying himself with the dirty plates on the tray. "I think we should at least inform Tony and Clint about that ambush."

Steve stopped his doing, and looked solemnly. Two days had passed after their ambush on Titan II. Not one of them between him and her, had talked about this as if this was an inappropriate topics to brought up. "I don't think Clint would stay at the same place last time we visited him."

Natasha nodded. She knew his method. Of course he won't. "I know. He almost as good as I am being spy. After last time, he wouldn't stay there."

"Yeah, we will search for him later. And for Tony…" Steve stopped. He remembered how Tony was despised him as much, so he knew he wouldn't like Steve to be the one share this bad news.

Natasha's face muscles sink a bit, she was crestfallen. Since the talk in the facility a few years ago, even though she was not in good terms with Tony, but at least she knew that Tony didn't hate her. But it was different for Steve, Tony must have felt so much hatred to Steve hat made him doing what he did the other nights. So maybe she should be the one to inform Tony about this.

"I will do that in your favor, Steve. Only if you accompany me."

"Yeah, I like it that way." Natasha opened her eyes wider, keeping the smile. He nodded and took the last sip of her orange juice, "You go change yourself, we'll leave in an hour." Steve informed her, and she didn't need to be told twice.

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The trip to Stark's residence was something she didn't expect him to know. For the last few years, Tony has been living in both new facility and this newly residence of Stark's family. This was the residence of him and Pepper as they started their functioning family, before Thanos happened. On their run from government, Steve would still always checked about Tony's condition. He admitted he felt bad that their banter didn't end up well, but he won't regret his choice.

The house was identical to its neighbors right down to the shade of paints, but they knew which one was Tony's right away. Whereas every other dwelling was simply the towering black brick, theirs was a riot of blooms in every shade. Along the rail were hanging flower baskets. So without even checking the number on the door she wrapped the brass lion knocker three times and waited. Pepper greeted them nicely, full of smiles, when she saw them standing in her porch. Pepper hugged Steve and Natasha before invited them in.

This house seemed a lot like Pepper than Tony. The house was long and narrow, perhaps only twenty feet wide at the front, but it stretched some sixty feet back like a giant shoe box. It was two stories high and had a one story extension at the rear for the kitchen. A small rose garden had been planted in the backyard, and it had obviously carefully planned and loved.

They waited Pepper to come back as she went inside to call Tony. Tony walked out from a different room, and a bit shocked when he noticed there were Steve and Natasha in his living room.

"Pep!" he shouted out. "What are these strangers doing here?" He murmured something about not allowed her to open the door ever again. No response from Pepper.

"Tony," Natasha started, but immediately cut off by Tony. "What are you doing here?" He peered away, face resolutely unimpressed, arms in chest, stood by the wall.

"We ambushed Thanos." Natasha informed him. Tony raised his eyebrow, almost sign to mock them. "And by you are here, I assumed you guys failed?"

Natasha nodded in defeat. "Thor killed Thanos, but we unable to reverse the snap."

"That was what I thought. Have you gone insane ambushed him? What it cost you huh?" Tony asked. No one answered so he continued. "How about the stolen stones? What happened to the stones?"

Steve looked at Tony, somehow his arrogant vibe, upset him a lot. "Thanos used the stone to destroy itself."

"See, I told you, Cap. We lost our chance!" Tony shouted out. "Why don't you get it! We lost. We are avengers, but what did we really do to avenge? Who we really avenged to!"

"Look Tony, I know Steve would be sorry, for not being there with you. But we did help in the Battle of Wakanda. You might fight him out space, but he attacked Earth too! And we were Earth's only defenses too." Natasha said eventually.

Tony walked toward her and almost shouted at her. "And that is what I was talking about! We should fight together, not separated like this! What happened to one problem at a time!" He practically shouted at her and Steve, looked so irritated. "And why are you talking for him? Are you two, I don't know, together?"

Natasha and Steve hurriedly shake their head and said no. "And why are you here now? To inform me at you guys failed? Oh please, I already said it, I don't care. II won't fight this battle anymore. I got my second chance. Try living in outer space with an android and no food or water supply! I appreciate my life better now!"

Steve stood up and tried to reason with him, "Tony, I get it."

"No! You don't get it Cap. You were born to be a soldier, literally you were begging your way to be a soldier! ME? I'm not doing this shit anymore." Tony looked around him, how he practically bought this house, to get a nice simple normal life with Pepper. A nice thing that he knew she always wanted. "I got my second chance, and I'm gonna enjoy it while I can."

Tony took a deep breathe before walked and opened his front door, for them. "Look, if you guys done talking, you can always leave. And please, don't include me with your other plan unless it has more logic in there. I don't do suicide mission anymore."

Natasha sighed, there was no way they could have talked with Tony in any civil way. Then, she held Steve's hand and pulled him out of Tony's house. "Fine, Tony. Take care of yourself, I'm still expecting your invitation." Natasha smirkly said as she walked out the house.

Tony nodded his head, then held Steve's arms. He heard Tony whispered, "Try to living your moment, Cap. I don't know, settle in, build a family. We survived the snap, there might be something for it, we deserve this second chance." Steve looked at him, and shook Tony's hand off his arms.

On their way back to the facility, Steve noticed how grumpy Natasha became. In the end of his eye, he could see her grump her way out as she put her feet in the dash. He poked her arms with his finger, while his eyes still focusing on the road. "Feet off the dash, Natasha." He remembered telling her that before, and knew that Natasha would doing it again on purpose.

"I still don't believe that Tony would be this ignorant." Natasha said, rolled her eyes. She knew that Tony would throw all tantrum and sass, but she didn't expect this way. The earth still losing its half population and Tony didn't mind it at all.

Steve's hand still stirring over the wheel, but he rolled one hand and poke her again. "I didn't expect more from him, so I don't blame him though." Natasha looked at him shocked. Did Steve really said so? "What? You agreed on him? I never thought Captain America would say that."

"As Captain America, I would not agree with Tony, but as Steve Rogers, I would definitely agree with him." He stole a glance of Natasha, which now completely moved her way so she could face him. He noticed how Natasha observed him, like perhaps Tony swapped him with another android or perhaps an alien abduction swapped him with an alien. "But, which opinion are you?"

"Look Natasha, I will answer you the same I did to Tony. The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 80 years ago. I think someone else came out." Steve gave her a meaningful look. Natasha grinned as she liked his answer better.

Natasha teased him, "And that's why you throw away my suggestions to dating someone?"

"Maybe or maybe no." Steve did never complaint about Natasha tried to pair him with any other agent of S.H.I.E.L.D before, or when Natasha tried to pair him with his neighbours which later he knew as another S.H.I.E.L.D's agent that in duty to look after him. When the time he was willing to try, the universe seemed to make it worse to be happened. That girl, was no other that Peggy's niece. Almost shocked him at first, but after getting to know her better, and after she helped him during the Civil War, he tried harder to make it happen. But after the kiss on the parking lot, after noticing there were none of the sparks, he backed away. Perhaps he was too long gone from romantic business.

"And how about you and Banner?" Suddenly he realized he was asking a very personal problem. "You don't have to answer me though." Steve said, still focusing on the road.

Natasha shrugged, "Been that, done that. That was a long time ago, Steve. Me and Banner is a civil friend now. No more, no less." Steve smiled, he liked this kind of answer, and he didn't know why. Natasha poked him back, and Steve turned his attention to her. "What?"

"Nothing, just wondering what should we do know. With half the universe gone, and the avengers scattered like a nasty scrambled eggs." Natasha shuddered in her seat. Steve grinned, he noticed Natasha dislike scrambled eggs while on the run, and she always thought that it was disgusting, and tasted funny. She always like her eggs whole, perhaps like sunny side or an omelette. And to think about it, made Steve wondered how the hell he even noticed this.

"I think we both need to get a life," Natasha said.

"Well, you first, Romanoff."

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**Hi, it's me again. Thank you for reading this chapter.**

** I don't know if this will satisfy your Romanogers' desires, but I hope yes. Any comments will be very welcome, thank you: D**


	9. Chapter 9

_I'm sorry for being inactive last week. I was so busy, barely open my computer to continue this story :(( Hope you still stay here with me. :D Sorry for the lack of improvement here, I wrote this pretty fast, thus not re-read this again._

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CHAPTER 9

Natasha groaned as she threw herself on the sofa in their conference room. She kicked her shoes away and crossed her legs. She relieved to feel soft fabric and no more weight on her feet. She let her head lolling back and eyes pull to a close. In only minutes the fabric was warm, homely. It was merely a rough month to pass after the snap. She had nothing much to do, and had no more idea about how bringing everyone back. She deeply wished for some kind of miracle to happen, but she knew she was no saint, so she won't blame God if he didn't help.

She noticed someone entering the facility, and straight go to the conference room, same as her. She saw Steve Rogers walked inside, sometimes she wondered how Steve would look so attractive even after doing a hard job. "Hey, tough guy," she said, smirking. Steve Rogers looked at her and smiled.

"Nat," Steve nodded his head and sat next to her. She looked at him immensely, watched him close as he took off his shoes. "What, Nat? Am I growing a second head?" He heard Natasha laughed. He took off his Captain America's helmet and threw it aside on the couch.

"No, just wondering. After all this time, how could you still single, Rogers." She noticed his untamed blonde hair. It looked so good, so soft and so untamed. It spiked all over his head, wanting her to smooth it back in shape.

Steve nudged her and rolled his eyes, "Seriously?" He chuckled. "We've been through this for the last seven years, Nat." And he knew that she meant a joke.

Natasha shrugged, and patted his shoulder. "Yeah I knew, I just.." she lowered her gaze and shook her head. "It feels lonely being the only one on this huge facility." There, she finally said it. For a month, she had been living alone in this New Avengers Facility.

After their failed chance of ambushing Thanos, Thor went straight back to New Asgard and never looked behind. Same as Nebula and Rocket, they took the space ship, Benatar, and went to scan the galaxies, like their old times. But in the good side, they promised her to stay in contact in case they need each other's help. And, don't ask about Captain Marvel. As she was saying, there were a lot of galaxies in this universe that perhaps need her help, so she went back to outer space, to where she belongs.

Steve ran his hand over his head, made his untamed hair looked even more tempting, "Banner still here." he said it like it was matter.

That only left was only Steve, her, Banner and Rhodey, who stayed on Earth. Rhodey backed to his old live, doing what the hell he was doing in military services. While Banner, stayed on his room, his lab, somewhere in this facility, but he never came out or meet each other with Natasha. But she knew, that he began to re-evaluate himself and the Hulk, he tried researching and experimenting himself with gamma radiation, to make the transformation possible again.

Natasha pushed his away, and death glared him. "You know Bruce, he won't come out of his lab, and avoiding me as much. He said about safety first, and he didn't want me there when Hulk take control." Natasha rolled her eyes, sometimes she really didn't get it why those boys always looked at her like some damsel in distress. She didn't need anyone to look after her, she practically an assassins.

Steve Rogers took off his armor suit, leaving him with a blue inner long-sleeves and looked at her. "Well, I won't blame him for that. He need zero casualties for that. He doesn't want to infect you with more same radiation." Natasha poked him with her leg, and grinned as he threw her a glared. "A Black Widow is already deadly, we don't need another She-Hulk, or.." he posed like he was thinking something then continued, "I don't know, Hulk-Widow?" Steve teased her.

Natasha grunted and kicked him playfully. "Alright, enough stuff with me, how are you doing?" Natasha asked as she noticed he got a newly cut near his stern jaw. "You got a cut there."

Steve tried to locate the cut she pointed, and failed miserably. "I fought some thugs down the alley, Bank robbery." he informed her, "It's good to be back, you know." he said, and grimaced when he poked his own cut with his finger.

Natasha rolled her eyes and got up, she walked to the first aid kit, over the kitchen where they put emergency stuff like that, and walked back to Steve. She put the aid kit over the table where she sat in front of him. She poured some alcohol over the cotton bud, allowed him to continued, "I got kicked over the wall, and cut myself over the glass pieces." She patted the bud over his cut, and appoint some antiseptic over it. Then she covered it with a bandage.

"There, Captain America looks good as ever," she laughed over her own joke. Steve chuckled, "Yeah, but you didn't take care for internal damage or several bruised I got." he tried to make another joke, but stopped when he saw a sullen face of her. "What?" he asked.

"I don't know Steve, I'm just tired with all of these. Don't you believe, I even started to read a book about meta-physic, trying to make more sense into all of these."

"Nat…"

"This avengers team is barely functioning, Steve. This facility is not functioning at all. It's been several weeks since we've met here. With those guardians galaxies out, and Thor left, I don't know if this avengers is work out." Natasha sighed, she lowered her gaze back down, staring at the floor. "It's like we've been having no reason to meet at all."

"Yeah, each of us are heroes with our own jobs, our own lives and our own problems to deal with, Nat."

"But you are staying here," she looked at him, their eyes met and something stirred in her stomach. "I don't know, but I do think we should be meeting more often."

"I stay here for you Natasha. You once promised me that I shouldn't be alone," he gazed into her eyes. "Same as you, now. I'm doing this for you."

She chuckled and shook her head. "Thank you, Steve." She held his hand and smiled directly.

Over these weeks, it was always Steve who stayed with her day and night, talking about him doing rescue missions, or even helping a grandma crossed the street, or even picked a cat down from a tree. As a good man he is, he was always trying to help others.

"Hey, I got talking with Lucy, today, and she felt like she got a decent job for you." Steve started.

"Lucy huh? Does she pretty? Should I feel intimidated?"

Steve had to chuckle again, "Yeah she does, for a sixty years old gal, yes she looks pretty, Nat." Lucy was someone he met on a nursing home. A nursing home which attacked by some thugs few weeks ago, and it needed a Captain America and Iron Patriot to took care of the thugs. "Lucy was, patient on St. Laurent."

"Ah, the nursing home got random attacked?"

"Yeah, that the one. She said her niece, got a full hand of orphanage to take care. She might need help, my help. But I think, you would perfectly good doing that chore."

Natasha looked at him weirdly, "Me? Doing a chore in orphanage?"

"Why, Natasha?" Steve remembered how good she was babysitting Clint Barton's kids."You were great with Clint's kids. I thought you might be good with this."

"Have you out of your mind, Steve? Me? A Black Widow running an orphanage?"

"Not running, only helping her. And I don't talk about Black Widow, I talked about Natasha Romanoff," he dared to put his boyish smiled, he knew that she liked it. "Natasha Romanoff would be great taking care of kids."

Natasa rolled her eyes, and kicked him, again. "Hey, don't put it like that. I'm no mom material, you know."

"It doesn't need a mother material to take good care of kids. I know how you looked at them, like you really want to have one, Nat. I mean, why have one, if you could share you love of kids to everyone on orphanage?" Natasha started to consider this. If she really wanted to wipe out her red ledgers, she might have wanted to start it somewhere.

"Fine, I'm considering this. But I'm not promising." She said, got up. "And I don't wanna you get all the smug face to show Lucy, when you made me agree with this." She said and walked away from him.

"Where are you going?!" Steve had to shout as he noticed she walked to the kitchen.

"Picking up menu for dinner!" She shouted out. "Go wash yourself, you reek of smell! After that you could join me!" He heard her shouting at him, he chuckled and got up went straight to his room and took a shower.

Steve just got out from his bedroom, after he took a shower, when he heard Natasha talked to someone from the door. He rubbed his head with the towel and walked outside only with his tracks and a white T-shirt.

"Who's that?" he asked once Natasha walked in his sight.

"Take out courier. Blame my ass for too lazy to pick it up myself." Natasha grunted as she held the plastic bags on her hands. Steve followed her to the kitchen slash dining room. She put it on the stands and took out the food. "I got sweet and sour chicken for you, dumplings and noodles."

Steve looked at the carton box objectively. "Only for two servings?" Maybe she forgot that there was Banner inside this facility also.

"Bruce won't even come out the lab. He basically locked us in. He would get the leftovers, if there would be." Natasha snickered as she walked to the couch; holding a box of noodles.

She turned on the TV in the conference room which now pretty much being their living room. It showed a news about last accident. Telling how people cope with their life, and talking about breaking news as Tony Stark officially stated that he retired.

"Only he, would retiring with such a drama," Natasha told. Somehow she didn't even know what to react. The reality that Tony Stark finally stated he retired or the fact that perhaps this barely functioning team would never even get the chance to shine again.

Steve bit his chicken and nodded. "Maybe we need to follow his step."

Natasha looked at him shocked. "What? Are you planning to leaving the facility too?" Natasha felt her anger boiling up inside. She knew she own nothing about Steve. She practically just his friend, and she had no right to control his life, but did he really also thought about retirement?

"No, I'm not talking about leaving you alone, Nat," he said, putting his carton box on the coffee table. "I'm talking about how you don't have to work 24/7 trying to bring everyone back."

"Are you saying I'm incapable doing that?"

"No Nat, I'm just saying you need to take care of yourself first. When was the last time you have slept?" Natasha always looked so tiny in his eyes, but these days he noticed that Natasha did lost some of her weight due skipped a lot dinner. And he noticed that perhaps she also skipped a lot of sleep. He noticed the bags under her eyes, how she always looked fatigued, more depressing than her usual appearance.

"I don't know, two days ago?" Natasha shrugged. She was too much into this book, about metaphysics; talking about another dimension; another multi-universe and how that some reality able to bend and even the chance of bringing someone back from the death. She might consider herself crazy.

"You need rest, Natasha. This is beyond us. We lost our chance to bring them back."

"If I don't, then who else, Steve?" Natasha sighed. Was she really be the only one who would not accept this reality?

"Right, but at least we can help with the living one." He had been doing this for a week now. Convincing her to do their duty job, helping people. If she wouldn't join him in muscle job, at least she should considering helping Lucy's niece managed the orphanage. The kids had lost their parents, their families.

"You try that, I will work my ass on the dead one." Natasha grunted and got up. She lost her appetite.

When she was about to walk away, Steve held her hand, prevented her to continue her step. "I'm sorry Nat, I didn't mean to." He sighed.

"I know." Natasha sighed and tried to walk him off, but his grip was tight. "Please Natasha, I don't want us to fight. I'm sorry, can we just have one civil dinner? With you here, with me?" Steve had to play his puppy dog eyes, to convince her. Oh, he just threw his dignity there.

They ended eat in silence as the news anchor told them more stories about Ironman's journey up until his retirement.

Later that night, Steve realized how Natasha easily rested her head on his chest as she drifts off to sleep. He could smell the vanilla of her shampoo, and noticed that some red streaks already showing up on her hair. Therefore being a gentleman he was, he took her up and rested her on her own bed.

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**Thanks for reading! Any comments?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi! I just noticed there were already some review in here, I would gladly reply here :**

**Guest and romanogers :**_thank you for read my story! wish you guys still around and read more chapters of mine :D _

**Rondabunny _: _**_thank you for appreciating me :D Oops don't envy me, I'm still learning too.. _

**Ragnarok666_ : Hi! thank you for reviewing some of my chapters. Ooh I loved talking about MCU theories! Here, I want to explain myself,_**

_Yup, I knew Fury's car would have some tracking devices that would make it easier to track him, I believed that it would only pin point his location, but they would never knew what could exactly happened. Thus, running the camera scans (would be hundreds of security cameras to watched) on what really happened "on" Fury was the reason they prolonged it; since in my story they were few days gap after the snap happened because they were still on Wakanda. _

_Sorry about the time-off confusion about the Rescue of Tony's scene (I really don't know that Carol was arriving only two days after the snap, because it never really said so :( ) So, I changed it a bit since why Carol needed 3 whole weeks to search Tony in space? I mean, time space was different from time in Earth, so I made it Carol only searched Tony for few days only (but Tony still on his 3weeks time)._

_ Yup, I agreed with you, Carol was arrogant because she always went solo,and she literally the first "Avengers", only too bad Endgame didn't show her prime powers :( It felt like she was overrated much. Too bad Thor killed 2019-Thanos just like that without any resistances, left me shocked!_

**NinjaDevil2000** _: Hi! Thank you! I'm glad you like it ___ ️_ Well, since this story will contain a lot of Romanogers, please bear with it. Wish my story will influence you :P  
_

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**Anyway, thank you guys for giving me review, I would try to make them stay in characters and promise to be better :D**

**Here we go, chapter 10. **

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Entering the facility was a more high tech endeavor than it was only a few years before. There wasn't a passlock machine anymore, it had been taken out after a spate of grisly new ways to gain entry. The new bio-metric scanner of the owner for entry and any removal rendered them worse than dysfunctional. Instead of opening the door they summoned the mercenaries of armed agents.

As Steve walked inside the room he noticed how shallow the facility became. The agents who used to run or kept busy during the day was no longer there. There used to some agents walking or talking to each other before greeting him a good morning. Now, it was all gone, leaving an empty hallway, with dust and unliving furniture. It lost its life.

Steve walked directly to his room and took off his hoodie. He didn't noticed how sweaty it was until it laid damp on the floor. He shrugged off his hair in frustration. How he thought earlier in the morning, that morning jog would clear his mind like usual, but looked like it proved him wrong.

The long memories about how usually there was Sam jogged with him until the sun shone out, the man he always loved to tease with. He used to tease Sam by saying on his left, when they were both doing morning jog. How he liked it, because Sam's expression had always priceless when he said it. Some day before, he even tried to let Sam win over their banter, but Sam said it was not a gentleman way, therefore he continued to tease Sam about it.

Sam, he newly found best-friend after Bucky. Sam was the very first person he trusts; beside Natasha; that he knew wouldn't stand against him. Sam respected their friendship, up to the point even agreed going outlaw with him. He was devastated, no more no less, when he found that Sam indeed same as Bucky, were victims of Thanos snap.

Now morning jog wouldn't feel the same, because the more he ran, the further he ran, memories about Sam would be there, as a reminder of what had happened.

Steve walked through the hot water under the shower. How he wished each drop of hot water would relax him and erase such a pain memory. He was alive long enough as a human being, though he cheated most of the time. But he was living over a hundred years now, and watching more people died on his account would not be a good memory.

The more he thought about it the more he felt useless. He had no idea how Natasha managed to keep it strong after all this time. Was Natasha always this optimistic? Didn't Natasha said he was always the optimist one?

One time during their mission together, Natasha asked how he kept it together after being frozen for seven decades and how he was feeling about the modern world. He once said that it was because he always tried to focus on what was really important; he put his thought more about his job, his friends and his missions. He admitted it, that as long as he did that, he could stay grounded. Because once he put his thought more about himself and being selfish, he knew that the very first thing he did was going to bail on the mission and straight back to the past haunting him.

But now, what mission left for him? Nothing. They had had fought alien from outer space, bunch of living evil robot, he fought the master evil organization since Nazi era, he had even once fought the God of mischief. And now after they fought a mad giant Titan, and lose, what more mission left for him?

He scrubbed the shampoo on his hair as the frustration getting more into his head; making its way becoming a headache. He grunted as rinsed it off was getting nowhere easing the frustration. He felt so useless for the first time in his life, more useless than the pre-serum himself. Would he able found a way to bring everyone back, after their only chance was gone?

He sighed and got out of the shower. He took a towel and wrapped himself in it, before changing into another casual attire. He chuckled a bit as he noticed the kind of clothes in his closet. Deep down in his thought, he could hear the first time Natasha put comment on it. She teased his choice of fashion, and said that it was more grandpa alike, where he used some shirt and cloth pants. After those, Natasha would always being his fashion policy, as she helped him blended more into the modern world. How she introduced him into different kind of attire that he would not know if it wasn't for her. How she introduced him into jeans, hoodie or even bomber jackets. Natasha even laughed at him when he said that sweater was only for very old people who didn't want to catch a cold. Nowadays, sweater was a common attire. Sweaters were traditionally made from wool but can now be made of cotton, synthetic fibers, or any combination of these.

So he took out another sweater of his, one of his favorite choices of attire, and a pair of jeans, put it on and walked outside his room. He noticed that Bruce had came outside his lab for a minute of taking ingredients, maybe for his breakfast, before back shutting himself in there. He was glad to notice that at least Bruce was still alive though some of his facial hair coming out untamed. He smirked as he remembered his choice of appearance when they were on the run, a Nomad Steve appearance as Natasha said.

The thought about Natasha made him wondering what Natasha would do in the morning like this. Was she perhaps still sleeping? Or was she busy doing anything else? They hadn't meet for two days straight. His job duty made him wake too early and went back to the facility super late. Either he went out before she woke up, or he came home later that she probably already sleeping. He had to do a field job, a lookout for a moment in the suburban area down the south, for Rhodey. But when it all cleared now, he felt the need to check up to the "housemate" of him.

After J.A.R.V.I.S being taken down by Ultron and the sudden change of him being Vision, Tony found it hard to made another house AI, due to safety maintenance. So here he was, wondering where she was, when it was so easy for everyone to ask J.A.R.V.I.S where the other whereabouts.

Steve looked around and noticed that light in Natasha's was off. Perhaps she was just still sleeping, he thought. He walked around the facility, until he stopped right in front of the room that supposed to be Wanda's former room. He noticed the door was slightly ajar. His curiosity made him peek inside the room; because this room should not be opened. There, Steve looked at Natasha who curled up on Wanda's comfy bed, she curled up like a child, without any blanket cover her legs.

Wanda's room was still the same like the last time he saw it once, after the incident in Lagos, which started the Civil War. Each activated Avenger was designated their own private quarters while living at the facility. Wanda styled her own room to have a modern aesthetic according to her interests, including several spiritual items like candles, a guitar, a tv and a few artworks.

As a spy, Natasha had always been cautious; how she would even notice that someone was watching over her; even in her sleep or with closed eyes. Slowly and reluctantly, Natasha uncover her hand from her face. Upon waking, she burrowed herself a bit into the warm, feeling the soft sheets under her body. She rubbed the remainders of sleep from her eyes and gazed out at the ceiling.

She blinked, closed her eyes, and blinked again. Streaks of sunlight penetrated the window and blind her for a moment, before she noticed that Steve was the one who was watching her; in her sleep.

She raised up her eyebrows; which no longer in the perfect shape; because she felt too lazy to plucked it into a perfect shape. Steve shook his head and grinned as he walked inside the room. This was already twice in three months, she woke up and found out Steve stood there awkwardly watching her sleep. If it was any other person, she would say it was super creepy, but somehow she knew that Steve was way past creepy-obsessed-guy who had fetish watching a lady sleep.

"Last night, I moved here to sleep," Natasha started the conversation, because she also knew that Steve probably wondering why she slept here instead of in her own room. "I miss her, Wanda I mean." Natasha continued; as she stretched her arms above her head and yawned a little.

Wanda Maximoff was the first female Avengers that close to her. Wanda was originally a poor fighter, having no combat skills or formal training. After becoming an Avenger, Wanda even received extensive training in hand-to-hand combat from Steve and herself, so that she could handle herself without having to always rely on her powers. Wanda was the very first female Avengers that she personally trained, aside S.H.I.E.L.D's agents.

When she was on the run from the government like, Natasha even taught her strategies to hide in plain sight, such as masking her thick Eastern European accent with an American one. Initially, she had a heavy Sokovian accent, although it soon faded away as she tried to mask it with her new accent.

"Yeah, I know. I miss her too, Nat." Steve agreed as he walked and sat on the bed, next to Natasha. Natasha sat up, dragged her feet off the bed, and rubbed her knuckles on her eyes.

"You know, the census that is being carried out by the government? I tried to register her name, as one of the missing victims. Apparently, someone had registered before me." Natasha looked at Steve.

Steve nodded. "Yes, that's me. I registered Wanda, Sam and Bucky."

Steve's face changed when he mentioned the names of their fallen friends. His facial expression sank faster than a penny on a pond. His forehead shrank, making Steve's thick eyebrows as if they were connected to each other.

"I'm glad you did it. " Natasha lowered her gaze, to the white carpet under Wanda's bed. The guilt sat not only on her chest but inside her brain. Guilt was eating and pestering her. A fire burned in her mind and throat. Remorse hit her like a sledgehammer. "It was very hard for me to fill in the form."

"My hand won't even hold the pen, shaken over the paper they gave me." Natasha showed him her both bare hands; though it was not shaken anymore. Natasha wiped her nose, preventing herself for crying. She tried to glance away her watery eyes.

Steve observed her, watching her legs dangle above the off-white polyester carpet. He tried hard not to look at Natasha, because he could feel it, any minute now, all the wall she built would crumble down over a cry. He stayed quiet. He knew Wanda was someone close to her like a younger sister.

"I tried so hard, Steve. But, if I put her name there, it was like.." Natasha stopped for a moment. She could not hold it any longer. Her tears were falling down. She cupped her face with both her hands, how she tried so hard not to cry in front of Steve.

Never once did she cry in front of people. To them, she was calm, collected, and stoic. She held her head high and smiled in the face of everyone.

"..it was like I.. it was like that I admitted that she was also gone. If she won't come back again."

Then, Steve did something in fact during most of the time he undo-ed, he hugged her. He pulled Natasha close to himself, hugged her tightly. He rubbed her back, soothed her calmly. "It's okay, Nat." he said.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, gently rubbing her arm. Despite the heaviness in her stomach, it fluttered at the feeling of her body pressed against his. She sunk into the warmth of his side, appreciative of the simple gesture. His touch made the room warmer somehow; his embrace was warm, and his big, strong arms seemed very protective when wrapped around her tiny fragile body.

Brick by brick, her walls came tumbling down. The sobs were stifled at first as she attempted to hide her grief, then overcome by the wave of her own emotions as she would break down entirely, all her defences washed away in those salty tears.

It was more than crying, it was the kind of desolate sobbing that comes from a person drained of all hope. He had never seen Natasha like that, so deflated. Her loose shoulders shook, her hands hanging low, making no attempt to conceal or even wiped away her own tears.

The hug was a simple enough gesture - affection. The arms that held her were soft, yet strong. The feel of her body so close to his soothed her more than she had expected. But within seconds she pulled away, her mind swam not with the heady excitement of a new relationship but with thoughts of Steve. Why after so long?

She didn't want to leave. It felt as if she was in his arms all her pain could go away - mental and physical, mostly the depressing pain. If only she could stay in his arms forever, safe from the harmful world. One could only hope.

Steve looked at Natasha's swollen face due to the tears in her eyes, he moved his hands forward, erasing the traces of tears that had fallen on her cheeks; with his thumb. Natasha forced a smile while he was doing so. "How could you be this charming, huh?"

Steve ignored her comment and soothed her arms still. "I was also devastated when I lost Bucky for the first time. He was the first best friend I ever own. Bucky and I were inseparable on both schoolyard and battlefield. He was always there to support me, before and after the super soldier program. When I lost him I felt like it was my fault made him the way he was as Winter Soldier. I left him alone down in the cliff, I wasn't even bothered to search for him. It was my fault, for letting go the chance, but it was not with you, Nat. These," Steve pointed both at them closely, "What had happened was no one's fault, it's not like we give up trying, you do not give up trying, to find a way. Trust me, Nat, if there was a will, then there is a way."

Natasha hugged him for the last time, and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Steve."

"If it was down to you to save me, Nat, I would trust you, without a single doubt," Steve rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. He pulled her closer until her head rested under his chin. "Because I knew, you would do anything to save me."

Natasha nodded her head. Talking with Steve really helped her eased her own feelings. She didn't even know how could she be this moody only in the morning, the day wasn't even started yet. But truly, thinking about Wanda, about Sam, even Bucky, was really making her all emotional.

"And you are always honest, right?" Natasha smiled as she used his own words back in the past.

"Yes, I am," he chuckled noticed that Nat was using his own words against him. "It would be my pleasure, Nat. You've been helping me a lot. Consider this as another payback."

Natasha nodded, wiped her tears away. Somehow talking to Steve made all of this feels easy. "So, tell me again about this pre-serum of yours."

Steve chuckled. "You can read that story over my S.H.I.E.L.D's profile, Nat. Oh wait, you probably already did that. You memorized everyone's background files."

It was something he knew later on their run together. Natasha Romanoff, that Russian's spy, memorized almost every S.H.I.E.L.D's agents personal profiles, especially the Avengers one. She also memorized most of criminals or most wanted profiles. She was basically a living - walking S.H.I.E.L.D's database.

"Hey, you said about cheer me up as a payback right? I want to hear your story." Natasha pouted. And Natasha Romanoff never pouted.

"I have a better idea to cheer you up." Steve smiled.

"What is it?"

"Just get ready," Steve suddenly pulled away and cupped her face with both of his hands. "You'll know when we were there." Steve smirked and stroked her hair, ruled the untamed and kissed her forehead. Even the gesture shocked him, he never knew he was that brave to do so.

* * *

The moment Steve parked his car in the parking area, Natasha smiled. She felt the hot rushed to her cheek as she noticed the diner neon sign. She knew this place. The tiny diner huddled despondent among the huge city buildings. She looked at Steve who had his dorkiest smug grin. Oh God, she would really snap the hell grin out of his mouth and kiss him, but again, one could only hoped, or fantasized.

Steve raised one of his cheeky eyebrows and grinned at her. When he offered his hand, Natasha pulled out her hand from her jumper's pocket, and gladly reached him, they both held hands and walked inside the diner.

Just right after the Battle of New York, Nick Fury once assigned them both on a rescue mission, to prevent the kidnapping of a Nobel Prize winning scientist. Professor Sana Amanat was in danger of abduction by the highly dangerous mercenary group known as the Cadre, in order to force her to design new weapons systems. This mission brought Steve and Natasha together in Brooklyn, the very place of his childhood.

They both chose to sit on a booth bench, while sitting cross each other. Actually, Steve was almost forget about this place up until last month. When he was doing another mission for Rhodey around here, he noticed that this diner still opened. Even though it was not as crowded as it used to, but the diner was still open and operating. Then he remembered the time he was here with Natasaha, doing that mission, he took her here for a bet over the best diner in Brooklyn. And he made a promise to himself that one day he would bring Natasha back here.

"Still remember this place?" Steve asked her.

"Of course I do, this place serves the best milkshake I ever tasted, Rogers."

Steve smiled at the waitress who was head over heels when she saw that Captain America indeed came to her work area. It was an unusual day to watch a superhero visit your workplace, and enjoying a milkshake and some fries.

Steve watched in disgust when he saw Natasha dipped her fries into a milkshake before eating a whole fries. "What, Steve?"

"I still find it unbelievable that you could eat something like that."

"I still find it hard to believe that you never eat something like this."

"Behind the day, we kids were not this creative," Steve chuckled and looked at her. Natasha was always quite the beauty, but seeing her up close only reinforced that truth. She was of fair complexion, the ginger on her roots started showing up, highlighting the blonde hair she dyed, and that always seemed to gleam when they captured the light just right. "Plus, you know how bad my condition was."

"Then you should be happy that they still open up until now, it gives you a chance for always trying this," Natasha dipped a fries and offered it at him. "Come on, Steve, open your mouth."

"No, it would taste weird."

"Com'on Steve, you are old enough for never try this. Trust me, you would like it."

"But it is greasy, and ice on milkshake is sweet, I don't think it was a good combination." Steve observed the single fries on her finger. He inspected it like it was some kind of disease that could infect him through the air, even the appearance is disgusting. The soft ice melt on the heat of the fries, and melt down, made it dripped few drops on the table.

"Call it a leap of faith, Steve." Natasha pushed it closer to him. Steve eventually opened his mouth and tasted it. Suddenly he thought it wasn't that bad.

"Don't worry, by your face I can say you are adapting to it." Natasha smug grin plastered on her lips, as she continued to dip and ate it.

"You know what, Nat?" Steve chuckled and ate the fries, this time without the milkshake. He just didn't want to give it to her like that. "Still, I remember made you a monster craving milkshake before."

Natasaha nodded her head and chuckled. "It was your own fault. You introduced me to the tastiest milkshake in this entire world."

They were starting with sharing a milkshake, then Natasha continued to order her second glass. And sharing back her third milkshake with him, just because Steve had been watching her in amusement. Of course he never thought that as tiny as Natasha was really have a sweet tooth.

There was that static again, that crackling in the air that's always happened whenever the two of them got within a foot of each other. Even when he was a super world war soldier and her was the most talented spies and assassins in the entire world, and there should have been nothing to feel; but it was enough to make the little baby hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and now it was enough that he was a little afraid for his life, like, if his hand brushes hers, one or both of them will be instantly electrocuted.

* * *

**Hi! I'm back again for the 10th chapters! Thanks for reading. Any thought? Hit review and let me know :D I won't bite !  
**

**PS: I realized since I'm getting busy again, I think I will post at least a chapter per week, would promise to work my ass hard on focusing more on this story :D**


	11. Chapter 11

_**I was having writer's block the last few days. This is because I haven't opened a draft for this story for too long due I'm too busy. **_

* * *

Last night was happened in a rush, they were back into the facility and got a note that Banner got out back to his old lab for some ingredients for his research. Even though they were literally living under the same roof, but Steve and Nat practically never talked with Banner face to face. Well, if never was too harsh, then the right word was 'rarely', almost close to never.

They had been doing this same routine almost every night, they were left some leftovers in the kitchen with a note to Bruce. Sometimes, Nat even decorated the note with some smiley emoji, or any other words only to let him know that either Steve and Nat still care to him.

"Banner was out back to his old lab," Natasha told Steve as she read his sticky notes.

"Do we know he has one?" Steve asked; walking closer to her. Natasha shook her head and shrugged. She put back the sticky notes on the counter, and sat on a couch.

Natasha sighed. "Wow, I had no idea that that sticky notes would change my mood super quick."

Steve raised his eyebrow. He sat next to her, pulled off his jacket and threw it aside. He noticed her shoulders were slumped and her eyes cast down in a mournful gaze. Her mouth was set in a semi-pout. Cute, but he would not going to let her know anytime soon.

"You know, lately I found it hard to sleep at midnight. There was no sound around, not even the sound of crickets chirping." Natasha started. "This facility used to have a lot of voices and sounds." Natasha chuckled on her own words. "And now Bruce left us too."

"We didn't know how long Bruce going to leave us, Nat." Steve re-assured her, while soothing her hand. "He only said he needed something from his old lab."

"What if it were only his excuse? His excuse to leave the facility?"

"He won't. I promise you, he will come back to us." Steve looked into her green eyes. He had to make sure Natasha believe him. Natasha nodded her head and calmed herself. She didn't need a second mental breakdown. She would not make it twice a day. There was a time in her life when she expressed her feelings in a true way, but she can't go on like that, right? She couldn't keep bawling like babies and throwing tantrums like toddlers; she did need to get a grip on her own minds.

"I promised you too, didn't I? That today, I'm going to cheer you up, Nat. So, because today hasn't ended yet, it means that my promise is still valid. I will still make you cheerful today." Steve said, ruffling Natasha's hair.

Steve was surprised by his behavior. This is the second time this day, his hand had done something beyond his control. If he wasn't a lucky man, Natasha had will definitely slam him on the floor and twisting his 'naughty' hand.

"Hey! My hair!" Natasha grunted and fixing her hair back. She noticed her hair was getting longer. Some of her roots started to show her natural hair color. Maybe sometimes later, if she were not so lazy, she would dye it back to blonde, or maybe any other colors.

"Let's watch some movies. I'll take my notebook and see which movie we have not crossed the list yet." Steve rose up from the couch and prepared to walk to his room. He talked about a notebook he had, where he wrote those To-Do List which contains items, people and events which he made note of in order to become better acquainted with the modern world.

Natasha held his hand, preventing him to walk further. "No need, let's watch it in my room. I have a movie in my mind." Thus she rose up, and walked with him to her room. It was an awkward trip, walking to her room. They were practically feel like some teenager on their first movie date. She was glad that he was indeed a gentleman, otherwise inviting him to her bedroom would sound very suggestive to any other man's ears.

Natasha opened the door for him and waited for him to enter her room. "It's not like you never enter my room, Rogers." Natasha smirked at him.

Natasha walked to her desk and pulled out what it seemed a laptop case. She opened its case and pulled out a laptop, she brought it with her and sat on her bed. "Come here and sit with me, Steve."

She pushed her leg off her shoes and crossed her legs over the duvet covers. "What are we watching?"

Steve had to ask her. Sometimes he didn't even know what movie she prefers. Some time she would invite them to watch thriller, some time about action movies, some time about sci-fi, almost rarely to romance. She even tricked him to watch horror movies. It was not because he was a scaredy cats, but some horror movies really planted on his head for hours. He didn't like the jump scares, because he would make a squeak sound and Natasha would always laughed her ass off.

"A sci-fi this time. Called the Avatar. It was the highest grossing fill all the time."

"And we are watching it because?"

"Don't be a party pooper keep quiet and watch it with me." Natasha glared at him. Eventually, he shoved off his shoes, left him with his black socks and crossed his legs. He sat next to her. He was glad he chose to wear these socks this morning, he didn't wear socks with a hole in it.

It was about Jake Sully, a former U.S. Marine paralyzed from the waist down due to wounds sustained in combat, is selected to participate in the Avatar Program. Originally, the position was supposed to be filled by his identical twin brother Tom Sully, who was recently killed by a man who attempted to rob him of his money.

On the lush alien world of Pandora live the Na'vi, beings who appear primitive but are highly evolved. Because the planet's environment is poisonous, human / Na'vi hybrids, called Avatars, must link to human minds to allow for free movement on Pandora. He becomes mobile again through one such Avatar and falls in love with a Na'vi woman. As a bond with her grows, he is drawn into a battle for the survival of her world.

"Wait, paused it right here," Steve asked her. She did pause the movie and looked at him questionically.

"So, the main brother died, right? And they decided to bring the twin brother in?" Steve asked her like it did not make any sense. "This guy, the new guy, had no idea what he was doing, why would they ask for him?"

"I mean, he would likely be killed on the first day. Why didn't they choose some other guy who capable? Or maybe trained him first, before made him jump in the program?"

Natasha chuckled. "God, Steve. You asked too many questions."

"No, I'm serious Nat." He put his serious face and Natasha shook her head.

"Come on Steve, imagined, if you were the one listed on your Rebirth project, all of those files they got to inspect you, to observe you, then suddenly you were gone; and you were having a twin. Imagine what would they do? Of course they would ask for your twin, prepared or not. Because you were basically the same as his, your measurement, your DNA would match your twin, right? Why bother doing the research from zero again for some other guy?" Natasha asked him.

"Touche, Nat. Okay, you got the point. Continue it." Steve grumped out a sigh and nodded his head in defeat.

For an hour and more, they watched the movie together. Eventually, he enjoyed the movie much to his likeness. The movie gave him an epic scenery, though it was less plot, but how the movie presented the scene, each location presented very realistic; until then he knew why this movie called as the highest grossing film all the time. The superlative visual in this film were absolutely breathtaking. It really had the great cinematography and action that had to offer.

Suddenly, much to his shock, he noticed a sudden weight had fallen to his shoulder. Much to his horror, he never realized that they were sitting too close to each other. Natasha's head had fallen to his shoulder as she was drifting sleep. He rolls his eyes as Natasga nuzzled into his shoulder, her long blond hair inches from his nose. He could smell her hair, very Natasha-ish smell, which was too good for words. After a few agonizing minutes, he felt her go limp and cradled to his chest.

He scanned her pale skin, was it this shade before? Or perhaps she was getting paler because she was rarely out the facility lately. He smiled over her face, noticed that her eyelashes were really long. He also noticed some freckles she had in her cheeks, making her more beautiful they way she was. Florid cheeks and flawlessly sculpted lips, as if crafted by angels themselves; sitting this close to her, he could see them clearly, glistening attractively with cherry lip balm that added further rosy color.

He gently closed the laptop with the tip of his toe, preventing him to move; because any moves he made, he secretly afraid was going to wake her up. He moved her laptop aside with his legs, and made a space to position her in a more comfortable way.

He gently tucked Natasha to sleep, moved her hair that stuck on her face due some sweats over her forehead. She scrunched up, but did not wake up, she swayed away his hand and back into a deep slumber. He noticed how her hand would circled his arms like she was snuggling a huge teddy bear. And he just thought of himself as a teddy bear, congratulations Rogers, you are a softie now.

When his thoughts became nonsense, and all the more interesting for it, he knew he was slowly falling asleep too. Now all he had to do was let go. He felt this blackness came over like a blanket. But somehow watching over Natasha's peaceful face, skipped his heartbeat. He was glad she finally could peacefully sleep while she was admitting it was hard for her to do so; not two hours ago. It was making his eyes feel heavier and heavier. He finally close his eyes which successfully sending him into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

An ominous scream; her own scream; startled Natasha out of her abysmal nightmare. Her cheeks were wet and her body was bathed in a cold sweat. The sheets were twisted around her limbs, probably because she was thrashing in her sleep. Her heart pounded against her chest. Natasha trembled. The room was entirely dark. No light anywhere. The remnants of her nightmare still clung to her mind, haunting her.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the room in blinding light. Natasha let out a frightened cry and buried her face into her hands. Even her breaths trembled. She swallowed and once again turned to see the endless darkness of her room. She couldn't see anything.

Steve rushed out from the bathroom when he heard someone scream. It could only be Natasha, who screamed in her dream. He ran to her room; slammed the door opened. He looked at her; her body trembled in her bed. How she literally gasped her breathe for her life.

"I'm sorry," Natasha said softly when she saw Steve's attentive face. "It was only a dream. Did I wake you up?" Natasha cupped her face with her hands and wiped away the tears that was minute ago there.

Steve shook his head; he didn't know why she looked so vulnerable. "It is okay." Steve said softly.

Steve had just woken up from his sleep, when he realized he had slept next to Natasha. He hurried up, forced his legs to move, at least when Natasha woke up she would not be surprised to find Steve fell asleep with her.

He had just entered the bathroom, wet his face with water, when he heard Natasha's voice screaming. He would not be worried if it was about the thief entering or something, because he knew that Natasha would easily overcome them. What he was afraid of was only Natasha's condition. Lately, Natasha's sleep schedule was very chaotic. Maybe not only her, his own sleep schedule was also chaotic. After the last war ended, sleep was a difficult thing to do. But similar events that often happened to him, making him as if immuned from the effects that occured. But he was sure that it wouldn't be the same with Natasha. Therefore, he hurried over to Natasha.

"I'm sorry that woke you up." Natasha said, wiping away the tears that she didn't think had dropped.

Steve watched Natasha wiped her tears, combing her tangled hair which must have looked like that because she was moving violently in her sleep. Natasha's eyes looked puffy. Her body trembled occasionally while pulling her blanket closer; covering her own body.

"Do you want me to stay here?" Steve asked. He did not know what had entered him, when he asked that.

Natasha did not answer, her vision was still in the darkness of the room.

Steve nodded without reply, and prepared to get out of Natasha's room. Maybe she wanted to be alone.

For as frozen as he had been for the past minute, her hand was quick to grab his arm to stop him from leaving, unfortunately she was only grabbed a handful of his shirt.. "Steve.."

He turned his head as his blue eyes met her emerald green one and seeing the embarrassment in her eyes. "S-stay.. W-w-will you accompany me to sleep?"

There was no need twice for Natasha to ask, he turned to her and nodded his head. Steve walked back to Natasha's bed. Oh, if Natasha only knew that he had just been lying there.

Steve lifted the blanket a little then put both feet into it. Bring his body closer to Natasha while hugging her softly. Natasha snuggled into him, rested her head over his chest, as he caressed her arm slowly.

In the darkness their cuddles were feel like a little touch of heaven, warm, together, cozy. She wished she could extend the night just so she could stay close to him for longer, safe in his embrace. His arms wrapped right around her; brought a peace she had never known before, calming of the storm in her heart.

When they finally clasped each other in a warm, slow and comforting hug, they felt all fear overcome had melted down. His chest rising and falling against her, their breaths in unison, and each thump of their heartbeats, they could hear in each others' embrace.

* * *

Night passed and morning came way too fast for Natasha's comfort. She woke up earlier today, some headache she got. She looked at the clock on the wall, noticed it was barely six in the morning. After last night's sudden outburst, her headache still intact pretty messily.

She wiggled her way out of the blanket that had covered her; until she noticed another weight keeping pressure on the blanket. She turned her head and noticed that Steve was still sleeping next to her. This was an awkward way to wake up.

It was not like they had never shared the same bed, they had already done that. Too many times for her comfort. She sometimes literally had three-way with Steve and Sam while on the run; since Wanda almost ditched the three of them to have more quality time with Vision. She bear it with Wanda, acknowledge that it was indeed the time to let her choose her own way, Wanda was becoming a young adult and she literally taught her responsibility.

She looked at how peaceful Steve in his slumber. How his eyes closed way too calm, or his eyelashes that grew longer than any man should have. Down from his square-perfect jaw, she saw his bulky arms, the top he wore barely keep his arms, it almost squeezed them way too good. Did he buy his t-shirt two sizes too small or he was growing bigger each day? How she longed to place her hand on top of his, and innocently glazed on his arms. Well damn her and her nonsense mind.

Suddenly a pair of eyes opened and startled her. He put a dorky smiles at her while she was almost panicking for no reason.

"Hi," Steve raspy voice squeaked.

"Hey neighbor," Natasha smiled back at him as prepared to get up from her bed. She would not making any of this more awkward.

If you asked, what would make this awkward was the memory of her outburst the night before. Natasha in her perfect condition would never allowed anyone saw her crying like that; let alone scream because such a nightmare. However, she was still glad that it was Steve; because she knew Steve would always respected her as she did to him. If it was either Tony or Clint, she wouldn't hear the end of it.

Much to her shock was, that morning; Bruce Banner was sitting on a kitchen stool; in his way eating cereal with milk in his big bowl. Natasha startled as she looked at him. Was she in another kind of reality, or did Bruce Banner was really in front of her, ready to mingle after all these months he hid away from her and Steve and literally everyone?

"Well, this is awkward." Bruce Banner stated in his awkwardness pose, he was half way putting big spoon full of cereals into his mouth. She didn't know which more awkward, him halfway eating or the fact Steve just followed her got out from her bedroom, and walked together to the kitchen in their last night outfit, not that Bruce would have noticed.

"Is it really you that I am seeing now?" Natasha asked.

Bruce munched his cereal away before got up from his seat and walked to them. Natasha walked closer and gave him a long hug, while Steve was still standing and gave him a solidary nod.

"Welcome back, Bruce." Steve greeted him.

Bruce scraped the back of his neck, "I'm really sorry guys, for shutting all of you." He cleared his throat and continued, "I just into this research of replicating the gamma incident that I got before. I've been trying to provoke the other guy to come back."

"Did you manage to do it?"

"Would I be here if I did that, Natasha?" She shook her head.

"Last night I went back to my old lab to bring me more paperwork from past, I think I could do it." Banner looked at Natasha who looked anticipated. Not because she liked the Hulk better, but anytime they merged back together, the stronger this dysfunctional team could get.

"But I'm not sure I would be able to do it with you guys around the compound," he stated while looking at both Steve and Natasha. Steve raised his eyebrows at Bruce, who gave Steve a meaningful look.

His head tilted slightly toward Natasha, who was busy making coffee for Steve and himself. Steve looked where Bruce's eyes were looking, and as if he realized what Bruce meant. Natasha, still unaware that the two men were staring at her, continued her morning activities lately; prepared coffee, then buttered two pieces of bread before putting it into the toaster.

Bruce returned his attention back to Steve, who finally nodded in agreement. Steve smiled a little, whether to Bruce or to himself; Bruce didn't want to hurt Natasha.

Steve walked closer to Bruce, "What do you have in mind, Bruce?" Of course, he had to ask.

"Hm.. look, think about Hulk as a being.. I'm thinking about separating myself with the Hulk."

Steve almost whispering, and he didn't know why he did that. "What do you mean separating yourself?"

"You know Cap, with me being the Hulk, I was like a walking gamma reactor; and this is dangerous for any of us." he stopped and continues when Steve nodded his head.

"The other man doesn't want to cooperate anymore. The last few weeks, I've been trying to create a device to separate us." Bruce explained, following Steve in a low tone, almost as if they were whispering to each other.

Steve tried to guess whether Bruce was joking, but he couldn't find the signs. "Are you sure that will happen?"

Bruce nodded even though there was a hint of doubt on his face. "I've tried it, before Natasha invited me to join the Avengers." Bruce smiled faintly as he looked at Natasha, who was now smearing her toast with peanut butter.

Natasha turned to the men with surprised eyes, "What are you guys talking about?"

Steve shook his head slowly with a smile. Bruce put on an awkward face while scratching the back of his neck.

"All right, don't tell Natasha." She said irritably, handing Steve a plate with a peanut butter toast. "And don't say that I'm an evil by not feeding you, Captain." Natasha left the two of them; carrying her plate of toast and walked into the conference room.

Bruce looked at Steve in puzzled, but Steve just shrugged his shoulders. "Continue, Dr. Banner," he said, offering his plate, in case of Bruce wanting to join in on his toast. He knew that Natasha was upset about it, since she would not call him Captain, at least not anymore. It was always Steve or Rogers, she would only use it when she was irritated or perhaps when any other person were presence. But he would deal it with her later.

Bruce shook his head slowly, turning down Steve's offer of toast. "At that time I was unsuccessful because that "other guy" always tried to cancel on me. Now he doesn't want to deal with us anymore, I think this time it will be different."

"You mean, the Hulk will stay still when you try to divide your .. I don't know.. personality? And let you to try to take control?"

"Yeah, sort of like that, Cap."

"Then if it doesn't work?"

"Then you will get an angry Hulk, but on the winning side, we will be lucky enough to bring him back to the surface."

"Isn't that a big enough risk?"

"Yeah, that's why ... I don't want Natasha to be around me. It would be quite dangerous to let that big man around here, you also know how that big man will become."

Steve nodded. "So what do you need from me?"

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_**CLIFFHANGER! I don't know if this chapter is good enough, I did it overnight. Thoughts? **__**Any comment will be accepted gladly. **_


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi guys, it's me again. Sorry for the long delay, here is a new chapter. **

**Warning: This chapter has not gone through the editing stage, please forgive if there are typos, or grammar-errors.**

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Natasha peeked slightly from behind the thin walls of the meeting room. Even though she didn't have super hearing like Steve Rogers, at least she could hear the murmur they were talking about. She wondered what made the two men whisper to each other as if they were keeping something from him.

He was eager to eavesdrop on their conversation, make him leave his food plate on the table, and walked closer to them.

"I don't want Natasha to be hurt again, let alone physically. I really don't want that other guy to hurt her."

"What are you talking about? Hurting me? Why me?" She wondered what made herself furious. After all this time they fought together; fighting side by side for a long time; did they still think that she's just a useless woman?

Come on, she indeed was the deadliest assassin that S.H.I.E.L.D has ever had, she even fought against extraterrestrials.

"Do you think I'm a weak woman?" Natasha almost glared if it wasn't for Steve trying to calm her down. She dismissed Steve's hand trying to approach her.

Natasha shunned them and left them alone.

"I'll let you handle her, Cap." Banner said, tapping Steve on the shoulder. "You can see me later in my lab again." Banner continued as he left the kitchen and returned to his room.

Once she was in the hall, she stopped her track and exhaled louder. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself. She almost smashed her hand on the hand-grip rail in the hall. Anger fumed through her as she grunted louder. If only this was an animated cartoon, you could see gas fumes through her nostrils harder as her face getting redder.

These days her mood changed easily from upset, sad, anger, gloomy so fast until she could almost think she turned into a bipolar. It was so hard this day to even know her own feeling her own moods. Losing someone was something, but losing almost everyone you knew half your life was a totally different case.

"Nat.." Steve walked closer, with shaky breath perhaps from a run so fast to catch up with her.

"Don't talk to me if you still thinking that I'm some damsel in distress."

"I'm not, Nat. I know very well what are you capable of." Steve assured. He looked at her though her head was toward another direction. He waited for a minute long, to let Natasha calm a bit down. What he learned from his ma was never started any conversation with a foul mood.

After what he believed that Natasha was in a civil mood, he continued, "Banner was thinking about splitting himself and the Hulk."

Steve could tell that Natasha's expression mimicked his own expression when Bruce told him that.

"Isn't it dangerous?" Natasha gave into this conversation and sent Steve into a triumph smile.

"Yeah it's supposed to be. That's what we discussed." Steve looked at the scenery outside the facility through the overly huge window glass. "We've been talking that it is indeed very dangerous. That's why Banner do not want to do it while you are here."

"And what did you expect, huh? I'm leaving this facility too? I do not need you guys to take care of me. I'm very capable of doing that alone." Natasha sighed at the sight of almost no bird flying outside. It used to be a good scenery, with some bird would fly around the sky or simply sitting lamely on the grass or perhaps nesting on a nest upside the tree.

"We didn't even think like that…" Steve ran out of words.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"We are not talking about moving somewhere Nat."

"I don't care. I'm staying. And it's the end of it."

"I'm not.. "

"Look, if the Hulk out, and being super angry, at least you got me by ur side to knock some sense into him. You could use the help, Cap. And this is the end of the discussion."

And for her called him 'Cap' almost shitting the hell out of him. Natasha was the one who rarely call him Cap. She would only use that nickname to tease him or to put some wall barriers between them incase he did something awful enough to upset her.

Okay, Steve nodded his head in defeat. If the lady says so. It was not like he was disgracing or underestimating her. Both of his and Banner intention was only to keep her safe, for the sake of their gentelemeness.

"You know that I will always care about you." Steve said in a low tone, whether she could hear it or not he didn't care. He nodded as Natasha also nodded her head and grazed her thumb over his forehand. She smiled and walked away back to the facility.

"Hey," Natasha talked as she walked inside of Banner's lab. The door was open this time, allowed her to enter his lab without even knocking.

Banner took off his safety goggles out of his eyes and put it on the desk. "Natasha."

"Hey," Natasha started again and sat on a tool near the lab desk. "I'm sorry for taking it out on both of you." And when Banner raised his eyebrows, she continued. "I mean earlier, when you and Steve talked. I didn't mean to sound like a teenage girl throwing tantrum for not getting anything I want."

Banner smiled at her.

"It is really okay, Natasha."

"No it is not, Bruce. I mean, after everything happened… I could never control my anger anymore, but.."

"But you don't have someone to blame, beside yourself?" Bruce asked as if he knew what she was going to say.

Natasha nodded her head weakly as she smiled at him. Bruce Banner really was someone who thinks a lot like herself. "Pretty much like that."

"Actually, you know my secret. I'm always angry." Bruce chuckled over his own words. He remembered saying those exact words would raise up his anger and turned him into a giant green things, The Incredible Hulk. But now, after Hulk chickened out and had ignored him for months, those words mean nothing, but a meaningless line.

"How are you doing with the progress?"

"You mean this?" Banner pointed at the device he had working on the last few weeks.

Natasha came closer to look at the machine big enough to fill in the room. Until now, she never put her attention to this big machine behind her.

"So, tell me again, how can this help you to separate you from you?" Natasha asked.

Banner scratched his nape and walked to the machine, pushed some buttons and looked back at Natasha.

"When my body got the radiation from the gamma bomb, it changed my body's cellular and irradiated through my cells structure. Its changed allows my cell to turn into a giant big green behemoth we called Hulk. It enhanced not only my body, my cell's structure but also my emotions.

"Where my emotions clouded with so many issues, so many hateful, so many stresses, so much anger, it turned me into an angry explosive monster." Banner looked loosely on the machine he created. "This machine, simply will suck any gamma radiation out of my body, out of every inch of my cells."

"And do you really think this will work out perfectly as you wish, Bruce?"

Banner grinned but shook his head slowly. "I.. I don't know Nat. I really don't know. Last time I worked on this was almost years ago. I didn't succeed though. Hulk snapped and kicked me out of the system."

"But since Hulk didn't show any indication to show up, you think this may work out?"

"Uh.. I.. Yes. I mean, we didn't have anything left. Hulk lost. I lost. We lost it, I lost it, and he did lose it much more than myself. I think he lost his pride from the strongest Avengers, to this tiny limp creature when Thanos choked him out. And perhaps for that, he blamed it to me. He blamed me for causing all of things happened to us."

"It was never your fault, Bruce." Natasha held Banner's hand. She smoothed his hand as she calmed him by cupped his jaw. She stared at his brown eyes, his freckled nose. Natasha smiled, this Bruce Banner was the one she let herself fall in love. She rubbed her thumb over Banner's cheek as Bruce leaned in her hand.

"I know." Banner raspy voice snapped something inside Natasha and let her cleared her throat before put away her hand.

"I know you mean well when you said you will do this without me around the facility. But I can't do that, Bruce. I will not leave you alone in this."

"But Natasha…."

"I mean it, Bruce. The risk isn't worth it."

"If I succeed I might be back as good old Bruce Banner, but if it did not, it might have killed me, Natasha. Far worse, it would permanently changed me into a raging Hulk. And if I woke up the sleeping monster, I knew he would simply hurt you because hurting you means hurting me Natasha."

"Bruce.." Natasha ran out of her words. She didn't know that she would mean a lot to Bruce. She almost convinced herself that being with Banner turned her into a softie, turned herself into only as a love interest some protagonist heroine in the movie should have.

Bruce smiled at her genuinely and hugged her. Natasha replied the hug, she hugged him back. This was nothing intimate between them. No more sparks, no more adrenaline rush, this was a simple common hug between friends.

"Yeah, I think it will be done and ready to test next week."

"Good luck then." Natasha spoke out. This time she really wished him good luck. She might not be a religious type, but these days, a faith is all you need to survive.

Natasha had promised Bruce that the time he did the separation project, Natasha would wait in the conference room. Watching over the security camera that put in his laboratorium. She would only watch it from afar so she could notice that perhaps something was wrong, making herself time to run incase the Hulk was the one showed up.

And Bruce made Steve promised to always be there with Natasha incase she lost it. Not that he was full of himself that Natasha would care that much to him, but a precaution is needed at this time.

But staying with Natasha was really a to-do list on the Captain America's agenda. He owed her that much to always care about her. That was his excuse, but we knew another reason above it. Being alone in the facility with her for months now, did move his sentiment, his feelings toward her.

It was not love, yet, but it was something enough to scrunch his stomach just by watching her grimace when she cut herself from a knife for making dinner. It was something enough to feel the butterflies in his stomach ran wild whenever he saw her smiled or grinned over silly things she watched on TV.

It was something enough to feel you found it hard to breathe whenever he was in the same room as her, it was something enough to cancel all his plans just because she felt it might not be useful things to do.

And being there with Natasha was that one thing he would gladly doing, not just because Bruce Banner asked him to.

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And here they were, sat next to each other in the Banner lab room, with big screen monitor showed up what Banner was working on in his lab behind the thick glass. Natasha wore the sleeveless turtleneck top she used to wear these days. A black sleeveless top that closed the neckline, which now changed color slightly; becoming slightly to a little gray.

Steve stood beside her, hands folded in front of his chest, watching Natasha typing something through the keyboard. "Will this go well?"

Natasha looked up to see Steve, who was literally shadowing her. "Let's believe what Bruce said."

Natasha spoke into the microphone directly to the speaker in Bruce Banner's room. Which is more precisely in the lab. "You are okay? Can you hear us?"

Steve watched the screen monitor that showed Bruce Banner setting up an elongated round machine, with a hole in the center. He saw Bruce's head entering between the holes, his hands still tinkering with the inside of the machine through the hole, protruding out and raising his thumb, indicating that he was fine.

Not long after, Banner came out of the engine hole, got up and headed for the table that had been removed so that it was stuck to the wall, making a fairly loose distance from the machine.

"The final check is complete. I will enter the machine, and please operate the buttons in the order that I give them." Banner said very clearly to be heard from the room Natasha and Steve were observing.

Steve looked briefly at Natasha, clearly in his eyes how Natasha actually looked worried, but he also hid it well. "Everything will be alright, Nat." said Steve softly, squeezing Natasha's hand gently, he smiled back.

When Steve looked at the screen again, Bruce Banner was already in the middle of the machine opening, positioning himself on his back in the machine. From the second monitor screen, you can see the silhouette projection of Banner's body inside the machine, along with the status of Banner's vital signs, structured beep that showed Bruce's vital signs.

"She just needs to press the button in the order you gave it, right?" Steve asked Banner.

"Of course," Banner answered. "And if this works, you will soon see me become normal. But if not, whatever happens, I tell you Nat, don't enter this room. Consider this is a restricted room and you are prohibited from being here. Please promise me Nat."

Natasha said nothing. Actually, she was also a little tense, aware that she would be the one who starts the engine and observe Bruce. If something bad happens, she will certainly blame herself, because as if Bruce's fate was in her hands.

"Okay, I'm ready." said Bruce.

Hearing the signal from Banner, Natasha took a deep breath and calmed her mind. Then her trembling hands slowly walked pressing several buttons from the machine beside her. Each button that was pressed would provide input commands that were sent directly to the machine through a long and complicated series of cables that connected to the machine Bruce Banner was using.

The sound of a hard-working machine and the roar of a vibrating machine began to break the silence. From inside the machine where there was Bruce Banner; slowly began to appear flashes of bright light, and the engine vibrated rhythmically.

If only seconds later Banner didn't scream like someone struggling in pain, then Natasha wouldn't know if something bad had happened to Bruce. "Bruce, are you okay? Bruce!" Steve yelled through a microphone connected to the next room. There was no answer other than a groan from Bruce.

"Is this supposed to be this way?" Steve asked. Natasha turned to the screen that showed an increase in Bruce's vital signs, the engine beeping uncontrollably, followed by strange noises that they thought should not sound like that.

"B-Brucee! What happened? Answer us!" cried Natasha who was worried. "What happened?" Natasha asked, confused.

The great vibrations from the engine that surrounded Bruce was quite loud, making a loud roar from the whirring electric, the engine vibrated pretty fast.

"His brain just lit up," said Steve, watching from the monitor as the screen showed an MRI scan of Bruce's brain, there was a lot movement bar inside Bruce Banner's head. "There's all kinds of neural activity there."

A few moments later, accompanied by Bruce Banner's screams of pain, his body shook quite violently inside the machine. Even though the machine covered almost his body, Bruce's legs which were still visible, looked shaken. Bruce's screams grew, he groaned in pain.

The alarm starts to sound, first slowly and gradually hardens. An electrical attack occurred strong enough in Banner's room, so that all the furniture shook violently, and the light bulb that was supposed to illuminate the room went out and died completely, then was replaced by emergency lights installed there.

The red light flashed round and round along with the sound of an alarm indicating danger. The monitor screen showed great bar movements on Bruce's body scan, the vital signs bar was moving abysmally, and the other monitor showed a warning of danger flashing red on the screen.

Natasha's eyes widened, her hands trembled, what happened? Unconsciously, she walked away from the table and walked outside the room, wanting to check on Banner's condition.

"Stop," Steve said, acting responsive, grabbing Natasha's arm and preventing her from walking forward.

"Get out of my way." Natasha warned him.

"Stay here." said Steve as he still holding on Natasha's arm.

"There is something wrong." said Natasha.

"You hear what he says, we should stay here." Natasha turned her head through the glass mounted in their room to be the divider between the two rooms, then her eyes returned to Steve. To hell with the rules, she dodged Steve's grasp and broke through the door. Steve chased after her.

Before Natasha managed to open Banner's door, Steve pulled Natasha's hand to push it away from the door, but the small Natasha had enough strength to withstand Captain America's attack.

"No!" said Steve, trying to reach and lock Natasha in his arm. Natasha elbowed Steve and tried to get out of Steve's lock. And of course she managed to get out of his lock. Natasha ran and opened the door that separated her with Bruce.

There was Bruce Banner laying inside of the machine which shook absurdly, and the alarm blinks annoyingly. Not long after, the engine stopped vibrating. Everything returned to silence, even the flash of light from the engine gradually slowed and finally disappeared in the darkness of the room. The hood automatically opens, blowing thin smoke that is still quite visible inside the dark.

When finally the engine cover opens, displaying Bruce Banner lying limply and helpless, on a mattress with thin smoke still billowing. Natasha ran over to Bruce Banner who was still lying down and checked the pulse from his hand. The pulse is still there, slow, barely noticeable, but there is. Bruce Banner is still alive. Banner's eyes opened slowly, narrowed by the difference in light, then looked at Natasha. "Nat ..." he said softly.

Then the engine shook again, even though the engine cover was still open and a few moments ago the vibration had stopped.

Seconds later, Natasha herself was not sure what happened. One thing she was sure was she felt her body pulled back, of course by Steve, and her body was pulled into Steve's arms. Out of nowhere came the imitation of Steve's shield, probably a prototype by Wakandan, but certainly Steve pulled her into his arms and shield of themself behind his shield. And when the sound of an explosion was heard, there was no fire, only an electromagnetic explosion that was strong enough to push Steve and Natasha away, until Steve's back hit the wall hard and Natasha was thrown away in Steve's arms.

The electromagnetic explosion, which was strong enough, blew up almost all the light bulbs in the room; even such great vibrations can make the glass that divides the two rooms crack and gradually break. Steve groaned for a while, then immediately noticed Natasha who was in his arms. "Are you all right?" Steve asked. Natasha nodded. The two of them simultaneously looked for Bruce Banner, who was still invisible from the chaos created by the wreckage of the engine. Banner's machine was torn apart, crumbled into chunks.

Both of them gasped when they heard a loud moan from behind the rubble, Natasha responsively released from Steve's arms, then walked to check on Bruce.

Like dejavu, to the first time Natasha had to witness the transformation of Bruce Banner's change in the S.H.I.E.L.D tri carrier, Natasha saw Banner moan in pain. Changes that occur in his body have begun to appear. His body was enlarged almost three times larger than his usual size. His clothes were torn apart, every muscle in his body gradually enlarged and hardened. Bruce groaned again, but this time the sound was louder and rougher, like a beast's howl.

"Bruce?" At the same time his name was called by Natasha, Bruce turned to her. His gaze was different, even his eyes were no longer brown as usual; the green eyeball glowing in anger was staring at Natasha.

"Bruce, I know you're in there, you have to fight it." said Natasha, advancing slightly to Bruce. She hoped that the bond established between them is still there. Hopefully the lullaby would still work.

Bruce looked away, his hands gripping the chunks of the engine that lay helpless, causing a dent due to the power of the Hulk. Bruce's breath was panting, the more it sounded like an angry grunt, the longer it heard the faster and heavier.

Steve walked closer, his hands wrapped around Natasha, preventing her from approaching Bruce. "It's okay," she said as she turned to Steve and gave a nod of permission. Natasha slowly stepped closer, her right hand extended forward trying to reach Bruce, while the left one was still in the grip of Steve who was full of worry behind her.

"You promised not to come here!" Banner shouted, this time his voice almost sounded like the real Bruce Banner, not like Bruce Banner who had been infiltrated by the Hulk. But as if there was resistance from inside, Bruce shook his head and moved away from Natasha; even though the Hulk side is still growling.

Before Steve or Natasha had answered, Bruce's body stumbled against the wall, causing a crack. Bruce Banner groaned in pain as his body expanded again. The shirt he wore stretched and eventually caused a big tear in the back, which was now getting bigger and slowly changing color.

Bruce Banner turned back to Natasha, and his gaze shifted toward Steve behind him, instead of going soft like Bruce Banner's, his gaze gradually became angry and green flashes filled his eyes. Banner's body jerked, his transformation completed, the Hulk tearing apart the remnants of Bruce's shirt and reflecting the large green muscles that were poking out perfectly. A furious growl sounds very loud.

Natasha turned to Steve, her left hand that was still linked to Steve, giving Steve access to hold Natasha forward. "Do not." he said softly, not like an order, more like a request. It was as if he was cursing, as Natasha shook her head at him; Natasha Romanoff is always a stubborn woman, and she follows her heart more than anyone else's.

Natasha walked slowly, the distance that was getting away from Steve, making their hands that were initially intertwined finally released; her hands were no longer linked to Steve. No, more precisely Natasha's hand slowly slipped out of Steve's grasp because Natasha approached toward Hulk.

"Hey, big guy." Natasha walked forward, most of her filled with fear. A fear that what if the bond between them had long been broken as the relationship between them ended. A fear that what if the experiment Bruce Banner did today instead of making Bruce separate from the Hulk, it made the Hulk permanently took control of Bruce's body.

"The sun is getting low, buddy." Natasha ventured to utter a sentence that should normally be a mantra between them. Sentences that can melt the Hulk side of Bruce. Natasha's raised a hand, as she usually did, trembled slightly. Steve was still watching them from behind, but his hands swiftly still gripped his shield tightly.

"No more Lullaby!" shouted Hulk, which sounded like a child throwing a tantrum, a big size child. Hulk smashed the machine and threw it aside to the wall making it no barrier between them.

Natasha was surprised, never in her life would have thought that the Hulk could speak. During those times, during Bruce becoming a Hulk, almost never a word came out of the Hulk's mouth, other than moans or growls. What actually happened from the two years Bruce Banner lost on the planet Sakaar?

Natasha turned her head to Steve, who was just as shocked as she was, and both of them were startled again by the Hulk's roar as he used the engine to hit them both. Steve swiftly pulled Natasha in his arms again, behind his shield. His shield was indeed made from the same material as his, before he returned it to Tony, but with a different surface area and mass size, making him quite feel the Hulk hit more than usual.

Natasha felt how she was forcibly separated from Steve's embrace, and the Hulk consciously knocked herself against the wall. Hulk seemed to scold her, shouting a groan right in her face, before his hand raised and prepared to give a hard slap towards Natasha.

Instead of feeling a hard slap, Natasha found Hulk moaning in pain, because apparently, Steve had stuck the pointed end of the shield he had, right on the Hulk's feet. Reflexively, the Hulk struck Captain America and threw a hard chunk of the cupboard from the corner of the room at Steve. Then the Hulk hit the cabinet with his entire body, and returned to Natasha. "Hulk smash," he said.

Natasha saw how Steve was buried under a cupboard that looked dented due to the burden of the Hulk, while stumbling away from Hulk. "Bruce ... I'm sure you're still there." Natasha said softly, her whole body ached due to the pounding here and there from the Hulk.

"Puny human." was the last word Natasha heard before darkness enveloped her. But before that, she still had time to see how the Hulk smashed wall after wall and broke out of the Facility, and disappeared into the distance, blending with the green scenery behind the Facility.

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**Please hit review and let me know what do you think. Thank you for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

SIX MONTHS LATER. She sat in agony and semi-blindness amid chaos. Then as she began to recover her consciousness, she found herself crouching by a pillar some distance from where she had been standing: she saw a place where tables and chairs were all upside down, there was an enormous explosion.

It was as though a fist of orange flame had decided to punch its way out of the main building. Windows shattered. Smoke and fire rushed out. Thousands of pieces of glass and steel, a deadly rainfall, showered down. Alarms - shrill and deafening- erupted. A huge bite had been taken out of the side and the roof of the building.

Natasha coughed because of the smoke that had begun to enter her lungs. "Are you alright?" Slowly, there was a low voice of a male voice; sounds really worried.

Natasha was holding her ear-comm, emphasizing the instrument in her ear, so she could hear more clearly. She coughed again, her eyes burning hot from the roaring smoke.

"Natasha .. are you alright?" The voice came again; louder than before.

"I'm fine. Just got hit hard enough against the wall." Natasha answered in a hoarse voice. Slowly she tried to get up from the corner holding on to the pillar for support. Her body felt as if I had been bruised in every corner, yet her wobbly legs gave it away. She was back to her position, sat helplessly on the floor, with insufferable pain both in her legs and her back.

The man grunted. "I should have been there with you." Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Take care of your arm first." Natasha peered back from behind the wall where she sat helplessly.

"I did feel better."

"Feel better my ass. Even last night I could hear you whining in pain in your sleep." another sound; clearly a man's voice, different from the first voice in Natasha's ear.

"If only I hadn't broken my arm on last mission, I would definitely be there with you guys." That first man's voice was annoyed. He even grunted loudly, loud enough to be heard in Natasha's ear.

"Guys, "Please stop talking. We're in the middle of a gun battle." This time the voice was clear as a woman but it only sounded more hoarse and deeper, accompanied with the sound of laser gun being shot.

Natasha scanned the room behind her. She held her breath, straining to hear with every ounce of her concentration.

She could hear footsteps approaching towards her. Lucky for her, the steps that sounded only for one or two people maximum. Every step they took, she could hear the sound of cracking glass being stepped on, the sound of wood breaking when stepped on. And the sound was getting closer to her.

When the long muzzle of the weapon was aimed at her, she picked up the muzzle quickly, got up quickly, elbowing the person very hard; able to dizzy the person's head. She kicked that man, knocked his head with the weapon. She threw her widow's bite to the other direction, poked another armed guy's head with his weapon, hard enough to knock him unconscious.

"While you guys bickering, I knocked two people down in east side." Natasha informed other people in her ear.

"Thanks Natasha, that was what I had in mind," said the other girl as well. Another grunted and gunshots heard in Natasha's ear, then she heard the voice coming back, "North side cleared."

"Okay. Here me out, guys. All cleared, Rocket and Nebula, meet Widow in the lab, cover her as she secure the package."

"Roger that, Rogers." Oh he swore he could hear Natasha's smirk through the ear comms. "Alright guys, meet me at the east side third floor. Gotta need that back up."

"You have ten minutes before the security guard back to catch you up. Hurry, and be safe."

Steve Rogers sat at the compound, the New Avengers Facility's conference room. For a year now, this place had been operating as the new Avengers Facility led by either Natasha and himself; mostly Natasha.

Natasha had regained her strength; she again gathered the remaining superheroes such as Rocket Racoon, Nebula, Captain Marvel; which seems hard to contact because she was always outside the reach of galaxies. Several times they did joint missions, with the help of James Rhodes or Rhodey of course. With Rhodey's position in the government, it was enough to help them find out some information about their missions. Or simply asked them for help for missions.

Usually as a pair of excellent duo teams, Black Widow and Captain America could complete the mission alone. But sometimes it doesn't hurt to get additional help from Rocket Racoon or Nebula. Although most missions were completed by Captain America himself. Didn't know what got into him, but every mission he did seemed to be a tool to redeem himself, as well as a tool to make his brain continues to work without having to think about other things that were not necessary, such as the fact that this could be the end of time; as most people believe.

For the most part, Natasha would remain at the Avengers Facility, while others will go on missions. Natasha would act as a team control or simply their quarterback, which was tasked with overseeing or acting as a second eye for them, she would help to direct or coordinate them while they were on missions. In addition, with Natasha at the compound, could help collect other information needed, or just waiting for news from Captain Marvel who was still on duty out there, or even waiting for news there could be little information about the existence of Bruce Banner.

Steve Rogers felt someone patted his shoulder. And when he turned his head, he found Rhodey with his hands folded in front of his chest, smiling at him. "Turn off the earcomm," he said, pointing to his own ear, instead of the device in Steve's ear. "I've never seen you so worried about Natasha," he said in a slightly mocking tone.

"What?" Steve rolled his eyes. "I'm just doing my job."

"Job my asss!" Rhodey snorted, emphasize the s in the last word.

"I'm serious, Rhodes. I just don't want anything to happen to them because I'm the one who can't go to work."

"Who told you to break your arm." said Rhodey again, still mocking. "And don't worry I won't tell her."

"It's been a long time for Natasha to return to the field. She's usually here, as a QB, and I don't think I'm good as one."

"Yeah, that's just because you said that she was safer when she was here." Rhodey pointed out the room with both of his hands. "Seriously, Cap. What danger we, she could possibly get?"

"I never said that. I mean, I'd better be out there, on a mission. It's better to have one agent hurt, who has super soldier strength and fast healing abilities."

Rhodey shook her head, and raised his lips in a smirk. "All right, anything that can help you sleep well, Captain." Rhodey chuckled and put back his ear-comm. "And by the way, if she heard you talking like that, she would kick your ass."

Steve averted his gaze from Rhodey, and looked back at the screen in front of him. His hand put the earcomm back into his ear. When the earcomm was back on, he could hear Natasha's melodic voice. "Package secured. Return to compound in three hours."

Steve nodded his head accidentally, even though Natasha couldn't see him nod. "Okay, be careful."

As was known, in the absence of Captain America in duty because of an arm injury he suffered, forced Natasha as Black Widow must return to field duty. It was just because of concerns from Steve Rogers, made them had to bother contacting Rocket Racoon and Nebula as additional reinforcements. After the mission was completed, and the package was successfully secured, the biological weapons were returned to S.H.I.E.L.D or what was left of S.H.I.E.L.D, of course, with the knowledge of the government.

After that, Rocket Racoon and Nebula returned to duty around the universe as they usually did. They would only stop on Earth about once a month, no more than a maximum week. Joining the new Avengers team made by Natasha, making both Rocket Racoon and Nebula must report to the compound regularly, as their monthly check up.

Natasha had just come out of her room, hair still wet from a morning shower, when she found Steve Rogers was very clean and neat; in a pair of jeans and a tight black T-shirt that wraps every muscle. She saw Steve sitting at the dining table, with the TV on, broadcasting the latest news. In front of Steve was a plate of toast with peanut butter on top. Oh, of course she knew it was peanut butter, lately she and Steve were both craving for a peanut butter sandwich.

Natasha walked to the refrigerator in the kitchen, took a carton of milk and poured it in the glass next to Steve; his glass. She took a sip, then sat down next to Steve. Lately, their relationship increased to the limit where there were no restrictions on the use of cutlery together.

"What's the news this morning?" Natasha asked. She cracked her neck a bit and stretched her arms. She still felt sore from her muscle, mostly on her backside and her arms. She literally had a swollen bump on her backside, from a bruise she got when slammed down on a wall by her attacker.

Steve looked a little surprised by Natasha's presence, then smiled as he looked away from the TV. "Morning, Nat." Steve, then handed the plate of sandwiches to Natasha, which she gladly accepted. This peanut butter sandwich spoke a lot like it was their thing. Because really, they both liked it very much.

Steve pushed the button on the remote control and the volume of the TV raised up. The screen was showing a reporter who was preaching about The Wall of Vanished, which had just been built in a downtown park, close to the town hall.

For a year, governments from all over the world finally managed to record the many victims who died or disappeared as a result of the Thanos attack. And to commemorate this, every city in the world agreed and has built a monument containing all the names of people who have been reported as victims.

The Wall of the Vanished is a memorial to fallen citizens planted in every city in the world, who turned to dust or went missing after the events of Snap. The Walls of the Vanished were erected and consisting of a large number of marble slabs engraved with the names of people who died or disappeared as a result of the Snap.

"They will announce officially The Wall of Vanished later this afternoon." said Steve, chewing on his sandwich. Natasha took a deep breath, she walked and sat on the sofa, next to Steve.

"The data collection finally finished, huh?"

"Rhodey invited us to attend the inauguration," Steve said as he watched Natasha staring at a TV screen that displayed rows of monuments lined in a large courtyard.

"Invite us as Black Widow and Captain America, or as Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers, huh?"

"What is the difference?" Steve asked quietly. Of course he knows what's the difference. The names that will be displayed would include the real names of some of the Avengers team members they had reported. And if only the world didn't know who they were besides their moniker's name, they were actually the closest friends of Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers, and not just as a sidekick from Black Widow and Captain America.

"Of course it makes a difference." Natasha answered softly. It seems she did have the same perspective with Steve.

"I will follow your choice, it is up to you to be present as Black Widow or as Natasha Romanoff."

"If that's your choice?"

"I'll be Steve Rogers of course."

"Exactly what I thought. We will go together right?"

Steve nodded, snatching his glass from Natasha's hand, he took a slow sip of those fresh milk. "Of course."

That afternoon, they were really present at the inauguration of The Wall of Vanished. And because it is open to the public, besides them, of course many other visitors came. Many families of those who were victims attended and witnessed the names of the victims; pay their last respects, because this monument was the closest thing to them as a funeral for the victims.

Natasha stood in front of one of the walls, as her hand gently stroked the wall with the name Wanda Maximoff engraved there. Indeed, Wanda was a Sokovian, but she died while fighting with the Avengers. So instead of putting the name Wanda in her hometown, Wanda's name was displayed in the same city as the Avengers Facility.

"I see, you have found Wanda." said Steve beside Natasha. Along with her, he placed a bouquet of flowers for Wanda; juxtaposed with several other belongings belonged to other victims, which had been placed by the victim's family.

"Oh Ronald, why are you leaving us so fast. You were only five years old, you haven't even been able to ride your two-wheeled bicycle, you just took one of your teeth off." Softly heard sobs of other family, who stood behind them. The wife sobbed in the arms of her husband. Natasha paid attention to the names of the other victims, her eyes scanned bunch of the names engraved on the wall. Ronald Montgomery plastered in the lower right corner on the same board with Wanda's name attached.

She and Steve did not know any Ronald Montgomery, but the mother's sobs were enough to slice Natasha's heart. Bringing her memories from the past about Wanda, about the small family she had while she joined the Avengers team. A small family that she never thought she would get while working as a crime justice.

As he watched the tears dripping from Natasha's eyes, Steve ventured to gently embrace Natasha's shoulder. He rubbed her shoulders with care, mimicked what the husband did to his wife who was crying hysterically behind them.

As if she didn't want to be a spectacle, Natasha erased the trail of tears on her cheeks and looked up, raising her head that had been leaning against Steve's broad chest, looking at Steve's direction; watching his hard jaw, sharp chin, and a little of the stubble on his chin that he hadn't had time to shave.

"I didn't see James' name."

Steve nodded slowly, his eyes still attached to Wanda's name engraved on the wall. "I registered it in Brooklyn, most likely his name will be on the NY Wall of Vanished."

"You haven't seen it?"

"It will be inaugurated next month." Steve said simply.

"Don't worry, I'll be there with you, when it's done. I'll accompany you to visit him." said Natasha slowly then kissed Steve on the cheek, more precisely to his clenched jaw, because that was the only height she could reach if she didn't tiptoe or if Steve didn't lower his head a little.

Day after day passed just like any other day passed, with Natasha stayed at the facility and Steve being outside fighting crime. Sometimes Natasha would be in an orphanage. And that's where Steve just believed that Natasha could indeed multitasking.

How not, sometimes during the day she would be in an orphanage, looking after some children, even willing to sponsor donations for some children there. She would be there, just helping out, or sometimes she was there entertaining children by reading books or teaching them a number of things including how to defend themselves or just play together with them.

Natasha helped government agencies and took care of the children of victims of decimation who lost their parents. Although initially it was only an input from Steve to fill her spare time by helping the orphanage, but after going through a long debate in her, Natasha also realized this. Basically, she would've made sure all of these children grew up with a family, which is something she never had.

And today was quite tiring for Natasha. A child there, had a fever high enough to wet his pants and was troublesome enough to wet the mattress. She and some of the orphanage nurses had to look after the child, even though it should not look like taking favorite, while the other children also need their attention.

Quite tiring until she could feel aches in the back to her waist, due to a child asking to play piggyback with her. If she didn't agree with all this from the beginning, she wouldn't be crazy enough to let a child use her back as a playmat. But by listening to the cheerful laughter of the little girl while playing with her, more or less it reduced her annoyance.

She just laid down on the couch that was comfortable enough for her back, when Steve appeared with a cup of warm tea in his hand. "Here," he said while smiling as he handed the glass to him. "Helps relax the body, smell the aroma, smell good enough to relieve fatigue."

"And since when did you act as a therapist?"

Steve chuckled, "Copying Banner's habits, of course. When he left the facility, he left his aromatherapy tea, too. Enough to help on a tough day." Steve pointed at the counter in the kitchen, where Banner used to hide all his aromatherapy tea.

"Thank you." Natasha took a sip of her tea, a nice aromatherapy tea, in a cute cup she never thought The Facility had it.

Tea can be a chatting companion, a dining companion, or even just a friend to relax in the morning or afternoon. Drinking tea in the afternoon could make relaxing time more enjoyable. Tea did not only has a distinctive taste and aroma, but it was also stored various benefits for the body.

Have you ever felt calmer after consuming tea? Yes, one of the benefits of tea was that it can deal with stress. Tea contains the amino acid L-theanine which could reduce the stresses. Regular tea consumption was known to cause reducing the hormone cortisol which was produced when stresses happened.

"Pepper came for a while and visited, gave this to us." Steve pushed an invitation to Natasha. There, laying on top of the coffee table, were two invitation cards. In pink rectangular shape, with 3D embossed floral pattern on top, and a big Monotype Corsiva of "Tony and Pepper".

"WHAT? THEY ARE GETTING MARRIED ?" cried Natasha in surprise.


End file.
